Brown stars as Dave the goose in a new marketing campaign called A Better Way to Fly, to be rolled out online and on television from Sunday.

Air NZ chief executive Christopher Luxon said Australians already accounted for 40 per cent of the airline’s passengers to Buenos Aires and 20 per cent of those flying to Houston.

“We achieved those figures without any marketing at all, so imagine what we can do with this campaign,” said Mr Luxon.

Air NZ also flew direct from Auckland to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vancouver and was likely to add more North and South American destinations in the next few years, he said.

“Using Auckland as a one stop hub to North or South America makes great sense, particularly for those currently starting their long journey with a domestic connection,” said Mr Luxon.

“We’re well established as the preferred airline for Australians travelling to New Zealand, however many Australian travellers still think of us as a trans-Tasman carrier and that’s a perception we’re determined to change.”

Brown said the opportunity to voice Dave the goose was too good to resist.

“It was a really clever script, and it was silly, and that sort of just made it charming,” he said.

“I love what comes out of New Zealand in terms of humour.”

In regards to helping out “the Kiwis”, Brown said he felt a great deal of affection for the place.

“Probably my closest friend is Sam Neill who’s a Kiwi and he looks up to me,” he joked.

“We’re a little country, they’re a littler country but by Christ, they’re around, they make their mark.”

Mr Luxon said he was confident more and more Australians would realise Air New Zealand was a good option for long-haul travel that was “pretty good value for money”.

“We can compete with anyone in the world,” he said.

“We’re the 80th largest airline in the world but we have dealt with Middle Eastern competitors, Chinese competitors, Australian competitors, American competitors and we’ve done exceptionally well over 15 years. We love competing.”

Mr Luxon would not reveal the cost of the campaign.

Emirates also launched a new advertisement today, starring American actor Jennifer Aniston.

In her second outing for the Dubai-based airline, the former Friends star befriends a young boy on board an Emirates flight and they explore the plane together.

Originally published as Bryan Brown spruiks Air NZ in new ad