Air New Zealand has confirmed its American dream is about to become a reality - the airline will launch a non-stop service between Auckland and New York in 2020.
The new route was announced Wednesday morning, at the same time the airline revealed it is also axing services to London after more than 35 years.
What you need to know about Air NZ's New York service:
- Flights will operate three times a week between Newark Liberty International Airport and Auckland International Airport
- Air NZ will use its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft on the route
- The route will use the iconic NZ1 and NZ2 flight numbers
- The service will begin in October 2020, with tickets going on sale soon
- Onward connections to London will be available through Air NZ's alliance partner, United Airlines, which flies between the two cities six times a day
- The route is 14,207km and flight time is expected to be 15 hours 40 minutes northbound and 17 hours 40 minutes southbound.
- The flights will operate on Monday, Thursday and Saturday
- Northbound flights will depart Auckland at 7.55pm, arriving in New York at 5.35pm local time
- Flights leaving New York for Auckland will depart at 7.05pm local time and arrive in Auckland at 6.45am (+ two days)
Air NZ's acting CEO Jeff McDowall said the airline's action has been made as North American services are performing very well.
"Visitor growth to New Zealand is strongest from North America and performance of our new service to Chicago is exceeding expectations. New York has been an aspiration for Air NZ for some time and withdrawal from the Atlantic will free up aircraft capacity to make this milestone a reality," says McDowall.
In the decades Air NZ's London service has been running, competition has grown considerably, with Kiwis offered several options for flying to the UK. Most travel through Asia or the Middle East, rather than North America.
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