Qantas made headlines for its historic nonstop “test” flight from New York to Sydney last Friday, but doesn’t even know if the route is viable. Meanwhile, Air New Zealand has announced that it will serve New York nonstop from Auckland.
Starting in October 2020, Air New Zealand will launch nonstop flights between Auckland (AKL) and Newark (EWR). The flight will utilize a Boeing 787-9 and operate three times per week, covering a distance of 8,810 miles. The 787-9 will be configured with three cabins of service:
- 27 – business class
- 33 – premium economy class
- 215 – economy class
Air New Zealand will operate its 787-9 ‘Code 2’ aircraft to New York. This aircraft has a 275-seat configuration with a higher proportion of Business Premier and Premium Economy seating
The flight won’t be revolutionary in terms of distance, though it is certainly an utlra-longhaul flight. Rather, the flight will be the fifth longest flight in the world, behind:
- Newark to Singapore – 9,534 miles (Singapore Airlines)
- Auckland to Doha – 9,032 miles (Qatar Airways)
- Perth to London – 9,010 miles (Qantas)
- Auckland to Dubai – 8,824 miles (Emirates)
Air New Zealand’s Europe Strategy
As part of the news, Air New Zealand will also cut its historic Fifth Freedom flight between Los Angeles and London. I’ll have more to say about that in a subsequent post, but the new Auckland to Newark flight opens up a lot of doors to Europe.
As the relationship between Air New Zealand and United has grown closer, United can now offer passengers from Auckland connections to dozens of cities in Europe. Expect the Air New Zealand Newark flight to be timed so as to maximize domestic and international connections in either direction. I expect an early afternoon arrival in Newark and a late evening departure to Auckland.
Air New Zealand vs. Qantas in New York
Auckland is not Sydney…those traveling to Australia on Air New Zealand will have a connection plus additional 3.5-hour flight from Auckland. In that sense, Qantas will still have the upper end if its Project Sunrise JFK-SYD nonstop becomes a reality.
Even so, while Qantas floats the idea of a nonstop flight from the U.S. to “the land Down Under”, Air New Zealand already has an aircraft capable of the mission and actually beat Qantas to the punch.
> Read More: The Melodramatic “Guinea Pigs” On 19.5-Hour Qantas Flight…
CONCLUSION
I love how many new routes aircraft like the 787 and Airbus A350 have opened. I would gladly jump on this new flight if traveling to beautiful New Zealand.
With New Zealand so strict on carry-on baggage, I’d just as soon connect on the West Coast than via Auckland, however, if going to Australia.
image: Air New Zealand
Yes this means that flights to London will go via Asia now so LAX can be avoided because it cannot properly handle transit passengers.
their previous expansion to IAH then to ORD made NYC inevitable, but I also admit prediction error cuz I thought NZ didn’t want connections to dilute the yield (which could easily be routed via ORD and IAH) and would opt for JFK. whoopsie.
connections are the only way to make this route viable. i dont imagine that many people flying exclusively between new york and auckland. Especially with a configuration of only 27 business class seats.
i didn’t say zero connections, but just saying those should be on the South Pacific side, like NYC-AKL-PER etc. If one is simply heading to AKL, other than connections to secondary Europe, there’s nearly nothing on UA’s route map that can’t be routed via
AAA-ORD/IAH-AKL
with far better CASM economics and virtually zero detour. But if we think of EWR as NZ’s version of the old SYD/MEL-QF-DXB-EK-Misc Europe, then AKL-NZ-EWR-UA-Misc Europe can make *some* sense.
If you look at the published schedule that lands EWR at 1735 and leaves at 1905, it’s asymmetrically timed for European connections – decent for north bound, horrific for south bound (most major european cities have 5-7 hour connections, and the shortest LHR connection southbound is 3hr55 layover.
I used to work at IAH for NZ 90% of the passengers were connections
Are you sure about the seating configuration – don’t believe this has been confirmed yet. Based on their current 787 config the range would be an issue and blocked seats would be a reality. Believe this may be confirmed closer to launch and expect higher Business weighted arrangement.
Based upon the press release, it appears it will use its “Type 2” configuration. It would make sense to me as well to have more premium cabins seats for this route.
YAS headline! Finally, a blogger calling out Qantas’s PR stunt for what it is.
Nice move by NZ. Qantas must be highly irate. Talk is cheap, whiskey costs money, though.
Well…not sure your article is accurate with your own assumptions, in reality QF delivered first Texas (DFW) to SYD before NZ had IAH-AKL NZ hasn’t been capable down under to LHR…QF have PER-LHR. AKL to LHR require one stop at least. You are right AKL is not SYD nor EWR is JFK where few minutes count on the stretch of fuel. JFK -SYD with stop/transit at LAX still working. Despite the great service of NZ they are facing competition with QR, SQ, QR to LHR in addition Via HKG with codesharing partner CX or via NRT with NH.