China’s Sichuan Airlines has confirmed plans to resume service to New Zealand in April after a four-year absence, further increasing connectivity between the two countries.

Flights between Chengdu Tianfu International Airport and Auckland Airport will commence on April 17, operating once a week using Airbus A350-900 aircraft. It will become the only carrier to offer nonstop flights between the cities when operations begin.

The airline suspended flights to New Zealand in February 2020 at the onset of the pandemic having previously served the Auckland market from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, according to data provided by OAG Schedules Analyser.

O&D traffic between Chengdu and New Zealand totaled about 42,900 two-way passengers in 2019, Sabre Market Intelligence figures show, with Chengdu-Auckland the fifth-largest China-New Zealand city pair behind Shanghai-Auckland, Beijing-Auckland, Guangzhou-Auckland and Shenzhen-Auckland.

After dropping to almost zero during the COVID crisis, the number of Chengdu-New Zealand O&D passengers recovered to about 10,100 in 2023 following the reopening of China’s borders to international visitors earlier in the year. This was despite the absence of nonstop flights.

Sichuan Airlines’ return to the market will increase the number of carriers offering nonstop China-New Zealand flights to six alongside Air China, Air New Zealand, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines. At present, there are almost 19,000 two-way weekly seats between the countries, equivalent to about 77% of 2019 capacity.