Samoa’s tourism industry is set for a boost, following Air New Zealand’s decision to fly its large, twin-aisle aircraft to the Pacific island nation.

The airline usually deploys a narrow-body Airbus A320 aircraft to Apia, the Samoan capital. But from September 2017, Air New Zealand will upgrade two of its weekly Auckland-Apia services to its wide-bodied Boeing aircraft.

A mix of Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners and 777-200s will be deployed on Thursdays and Saturdays all-year-round, increasing to four times a week in the peak season. This will boost Air New Zealand’s seat capacity to Samoa by up to 13%.

“In the past two years Air New Zealand has added close to 20% more capacity to Samoa and it’s fantastic to see demand for services continue to grow,” said Air New Zealand’s chief revenue officer, Cam Wallace. “Today’s news gives leisure travellers more choice as to when and how they fly to Samoa.”

The number of people travelling from New Zealand to Samoa increased 4% to 57,000 in the year-to-April 2017.