iscover
Air New Zealand’s first-ever direct flight between Auckland and New York launched on Saturday — nine months before Qantas’ rival service begins.
The Kiwi flag carrier’s CEO, Greg Foran, quipped his staff would give its rival “a good wave when we pass them in the skies” ahead of the 16-hour ultra-long-haul flight.
The 787-9, ZK-NZN, departed Auckland at 4:23pm on 17 September as flight NZ2 and landed in New York 4:09pm the same day due to time zone differences.
The three-times-weekly route was given the prestigious ‘NZ1’ flight number for its 17-hour flight from New York to Auckland, and NZ2 for the 16-hour reverse.
“As one of the world’s greatest cities, Air New Zealand is proud to add the Big Apple to its list of 29 international destinations,” said Foran.
“By adding greater access to the East Coast of the US, we’re connecting our North American customers to the possibilities of 20 destinations within New Zealand as well as the Pacific and Australia, all within easy reach. This is terrific for our customers.”
The carrier will soon serve seven destinations in North America: Chicago (from 31 October), Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, and New York City.
It comes as Qantas plans to launch its own New York service via Auckland from 14 June next year. Its service will operate three days a week “initially” and also use 787-9s, three of which will be newly delivered in 2023.
Chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline “can’t wait” to return to New York.
“It’s made possible by the delivery of new aircraft, which have been caught up in delays that have impacted lots of airlines,” he said.
“Customer feedback on our direct London and Rome services show how well suited our Dreamliner cabins are to longer international flights like these, which is helped by the fact we designed them with more room and fewer seats than most of our competitors.
“We think this route will be very popular with Australians given the opportunity to connect via Auckland and it also gives New Zealanders more choice.”
Qantas currently operates six daily services to Auckland from Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne which will increase to 11 when the New York service begins.
p
says:and what a shambles it was flying back for most economy class passengers. Because of the anticipated headwind, Air New Zealand simply left the baggage behind in New York. It already had a massive delay on departure and when the passengers arrived in Auckland they were only told after waiting for the baggage, some up to 45 minutes. Only VIP’s and Club members got their luggage. Great service! With the aircraft Air New Zealand is using for this route, this will happen more often on a regular basis. For Air New Zealand the only thing that apparently counted was: “we fly nonstop to New York and back!!!!!! “
Peter Ehrler
says:and what a shambles it was flying back for most economy class passengers. Because of the anticipated headwind, Air New Zealand simply left the baggage behind in New York. It already had a massive delay on departure and when the passengers arrived in Auckland they were only told after waiting for the luggage, some up to 45 minutes. Only VIPs and Club members got their baggage. Great service! With the aircraft Air New Zealand is using for this route, this will happen more often on a regular basis. For Air New Zealand the only thing that apparently counted was: “we fly nonstop to New York and back!!!!!!” Good thing QANTAS has opened up the same route from AKL
Vannus
says:NZ divested themselves of their % ownership in VA in Oct 2019. Couldn’t get rid of it fast enough.
They got their fingers burnt with buying into AN, in a move which brought about the cessation of AN, a once proud company, with very loyal staff.
They sure won’t try it on again, especially now VA’s just a ‘lame duck’ airline, thanks to Bain not putting any funds into it.
Bain will have difficulty off-loading VA in our world’s current Avn scenario, + VA in itself, has nothing going for it to be ‘sellable’.
Rocket
says:I love the line from the CEO of Air NZ “We will wave to our competitor as we fly past them” – yeah, pretty arrogant comment considering your competitor will have a singular difference to you, they will wave and smile because all their passengers’ baggage will be on the flight too.
What a monumental you-know-what ‘up’. There is ZERO way they did any homework on this. Qantas chose the 787-9 deliberately because of the range/payload combination and then fitted it with substantially less seats, offering a higher price for the ‘non-stop’ to LHR for example which has yielded 90%+ load factors.
In other words, for all the bile that is usually directed at Qantas and its CEO, it appears they actually did their homework. This is also reflected in the fact they have ordered for the AUS-JFK non-stop flights, the Airbus A350-1000ULR which is, for that type of mission, a superior aeroplane in every respect. Qantas also negotiated a modification just for Qantas, to add additional fuel tanks.
I like Qantas and Air NZ, but in this case, the latter has not done its homework.