Qantas has resumed flights between Sydney (SYD) and New York John F. Kennedy (JFK) after a hiatus of more than three years, using Auckland (AKL) as a new stopover point instead of Los Angeles (LAX).

The Australian carrier suspended the SYD-LAX-JFK service at the onset of the pandemic, and New York has remained absent from its route map ever since. Frequencies on the new routing via Auckland will initially be three times per week using Boeing 787-9 aircraft, rising to 4X-weekly from October.

The Oneworld alliance member’s entry to the market comes after Air New Zealand launched its own 3X-weekly AKL-JFK service last September, also using 787-9s.

“Since international borders reopened, New York has been one of the most popular destinations for our customers who have been connecting on our partners from Qantas flights arriving into Los Angeles and Dallas, so it’s not surprising that we’ve seen very strong demand since our New York flights went on sale,” Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce says.

For Qantas, the new 8,832-mi. (7,675-nm) AKL-JFK leg will offer more connecting opportunities than were possible on the previous SYD-LAX-JFK routing. The airline currently serves the New Zealand city from three Australian gateways—Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne—offering a combined 11 services per day.

In addition, Qantas was not allowed to sell seats for the LAX-JFK U.S. domestic leg, but the airline has the traffic rights to offer AKL-JFK flights. The new routing could also prove to be more attractive for U.S. tourists who want to visit both Australia and New Zealand on the same trip.

According to data provided by Sabre Market Intelligence, O&D traffic between Auckland and New York totaled 31,963 two-way passengers in 2019, making it the fifth-largest U.S.-New Zealand city-pair after AKL-LAX, AKL-Honolulu, AKL-San Francisco and AKL-Chicago.

Joyce said the relaunched route brings Qantas closer to restoring international capacity to pre-COVID levels. International capacity is currently at about 85% of 2019 levels, and the airline expects to have fully recovered its network by March 2024.

As well as launching the new SYD-AKL-JFK service, Qantas has a longer-term plan to open nonstop SYD-JFK flights as part of its Project Sunrise initiative. It hopes to begin such ultra-long-haul flights in late 2025.