News
Air New Zealand commits to New York non-stop after Qantas Project Sunrise flight
Pivot to North America at expense of ending London flights after 38 years.
October 25th 2019
Qantas Airways enjoyed extensive media coverage of its first trial nonstop flight from New York to Sydney, but three days after the historic flight arrived with fanfare at the carrier’s home hub, Air New Zealand (Air NZ) announced it would start nonstop flights from Auckland to New York’s Newark in October 2020. Read More » Newark is the hub of Air NZ partner, United Airlines.
The planned flight to New York will be 15 hours and 40 minutes, but the return journey to Auckland will be approximately two hours longer, according to Air Insight, which believed Air NZ would work with Boeing to improve the payload of the 787-9 it is expected will fly the route.
In the last decade, the Auckland-headquartered carrier and Qantas have been expanding their footprints in continental U.S. beyond their traditional destination of Los Angeles. Qantas has added Dallas Fort Worth to its network, reinstated San Francisco and announced plans to serve Chicago. Air NZ has established Houston and Chicago and maintained its San Francisco service.
Air NZ’s New York timing is at least a year ahead of Qantas, which expects, at the earliest, to have nonstop flights between Australia’s east coast and London and New York from 2022.
London is being taken out of Air NZ’s future. Simultaneously, when announcing New York, the airline said it would end London flights, via Los Angeles, next October after 38 years. London is Air NZ’s only European destination. It did not reveal the fate of its London Heathrow slot. Air NZ closed its Hong Kong-London sector several years ago. Only 7% of its Auckland-London passengers travelled via Los Angeles, the airline said.
