United currently has 22 787s in its fleet and will receive three more before the end of this year. These include a mix of 787-8 and larger 787-9 variants which allow the carrier to fit the right-sized aircraft to its existing and new markets. The aircraft is being used at San Francisco International Airport to support the growth of United hub operation from where it provides nearly 280 daily flights to more than 90 destinations in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.
The new link is timed to connect West Australian travellers to the airline’s USA, Canada and Argentina flights when it begins operating on December 11, 2015.
The aircraft will be introduced on the Auckland - Nadi route between November 2015 and March 2016. The 787-9 will initially operate two new services per week building to five during the peak mid-December to late January period. In addition to this, there will also be an extra weekly A320 service added to the summer schedule to meet passenger demand.
Air New Zealand has announced it will start flying to Houston, Texas, from December this year, marking the first direct connection between New Zealand and America’s South.
Every month Routesonline provides an update on the current schedules of five latest aircraft programmes, highlighting the routes the types are being deployed upon.
At Routesonline we've decided to take a look back at the news breaking the same week in previous years and revisit it one or two years later to see what’s happened since we released the news.
Bristol Airport and airBaltic have topped the charts in a recent report by OAG which has revealed its punctuality league for 2014, highlighting on-time performance results for airlines and airports.
Air NZ has clearly defined aspirations for growth in the Pacific Rim. Its flights to Singapore commence next month and this new route to Buenos Aires will further strengthen its network in this area. The airline hopes to open reservations on the new service around March 2015, subject to obtaining necessary approvals.
Since the start of this year the airline has had a team looking at how to address the challenges of the poor operating economics of its 19-seat fleet while at the same time leveraging the significant economies of scale available from its 50- and 68-seat fleets.
The popularity of the airline’s service between Auckland and Los Angeles will see the airline step up frequency next year from twice daily to three times a day on three days of the week, while also extending the duration of its peak season capacity increase to Vancouver.
The confirmation of the A380 deployment follows the recent approval from the New Zealand Minister of Transport to a proposed alliance between Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand which endorsed the earlier decision from the Competition Commission of Singapore.
Air New Zealand and All Nippon Airways will both introduce flights with the Boeing 787-9 early next month, with Etihad Airways, Scoot, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways also due to the fly the new stretched variant of the Dreamliner before the end of the year.
Air New Zealand has accelerated the purchase of a 15th domestic Airbus A320 to allow improvements to its Dunedin-Auckland schedule from March 2015 with the operation of an earlier direct return service between the two cities.
Jetstar Airways will close its Singapore – Auckland flight from July 21, 2014 because the service is not performing as the carrier would have liked and it believes its capacity could be better deployed on other routes.
