AirAsia X is planning to add Auckland, the largest and most populous urban area in New Zealand, as a tag on its existing daily Kuala Lumpur – Gold Coast service and is expected to open reservations this week. It previously served Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand but closed the route after just 15 months of operation.
The new flight will be an eleven hour sector and will be operated using a Boeing 767-300ER. The Vietnamese market will initially be served on a seasonal schedule with flights planned between June and October 2016, but the carrier said there is the potential to expand the season in subsequent years.
The flight will be operated as part of American's joint business with Qantas, which remains subject to regulatory approvals. Through their enhanced relationship, American and Qantas intend to provide increased connectivity to markets beyond their key gateways.
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.
Under the alliance Air New Zealand will continue to operate daily between Auckland and Shanghai, while Air China will operate this new service between Auckland and Beijing from December 10, 2015, bossting air capacity between Auckland and Mainland China by more than 25 per cent year round.
The airline will introduce Nelson, Napier, New Plymouth and Palmerston North to its network starting from December 1, 2015, bringing low fare competition to many monopoly domestic routes outside the country’s main centres as it grows in New Zealand's regional market.
Flag carrier, Philippine Airlines has announced it will launch services to Auckland from Manila later this year, marking the first time the airline has ever operated in New Zealand.
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.
In partnership with our Airline Route blog, Routesonline is launching a new weekly 'Historic Airline Schedule Snapshot' as part of our Throwback Thursday series, where we look back at the historic flight operations of a current or defunct airline.
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.
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.
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.
China Airlines will be the first member of the SkyTeam alliance to offer flights to New Zealand’s South Island and will enable various connection opportunities in Sydney to the services of other partners of the grouping.
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.
Our own analysis of MIDT data shows that last year around two thirds of the passengers flying with the airline from or to Auckland actually ended their journeys at other locations than Guangzhou.
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.
