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Air New Zealand will retain London routes

Originally published on businesstraveller.com 25/01/2012 - Filed under: News »

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There had been speculation in the Antipodean press that Air New Zealand would axe one of its London routes this year. The kiwi flag-carrier operates from Auckland to London via both Hong Kong and Los Angeles. But its international services have been losing NZ$1 million every month and cutbacks were expected.

But according to the NZ Herald, Air New Zealand will continue to operate its London services although capacity cuts (use of smaller planes or less frequent flights) are not being ruled out in order to cope with a decline in visitor numbers.

In a letter to staff, the airline’s CEO Rob Fyfe, said, “It’s no secret that we are struggling to make London profitable, just as our competitors are also struggling in this task, not just with London but on most ultra long-haul routes.”

“We have no current intention of withdrawing our presence from any market we serve but it does mean adjusting capacity to meet demand where appropriate.”

Air New Zealand rosters one of its new and larger B777-300ERs for the daily flight via Los Angeles. The five times a week service via Hong Kong is flown by a smaller B777-200.

Whereas the B777-300ER is equipped with the carrier’s latest inflight products, the B777-200 comes with older style seating. It is unclear whether or not or when the latter aircraft type will be retrofitted with the new seating which would include wider Premium Economy seating and the Skycouch in economy class.

The UK remains the second largest source of visitors to New Zealand after Australia.

For more information visit airnz.co.uk.

Report by Alex McWhirter

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COMMENTS » 

sparkyflyer - 25/01/2012 11:57

Good news that NZ are not pulling out of London, either via LAX and hopefully not HK. Have flown them in Y on a 747 and comfort was good, service superb and foor and wine excellent!. I refuse to fly on their 777-300 though with 10 abreast.

I wonder if this has scared others off as well.

On the HK route they still use 777-200 which is better in Y, but their Y+ service is not competitive with seats no wider than normal Y. Again, good food though!

Perhaps when 787 arrive this will be ideal for this route, but wonder if another option could be flying via San Fransico, or even South America? One thinks of via Sao Paulo, where Brazilians can use the service as an easy way to get to New Zealand, Australia and Asia.

Another option could be Lima, to tap into the network of TACA, a future Star Alliance carrier.

BusinessTraveller - 25/01/2012 15:03

Thanks for the feedback. Another possible UK destination for Air New Zealand has to be Manchester given the strong ties between our two countries. Auckland-Manchester could be served as an extension of the existing London service. Or it could be covered separately via San Francisco or Los Angeles using a 787.

Alex McWhirter

sparkyflyer - 26/01/2012 12:07

Thank you Alex for your reply.

Another option would be for ANZ to slightly alter their departure time from HK. It is currently very early in the morning, about 8ish, meaning leaving the city very early, but also a slightly later departure would perhaps enable them to capture transfer traffic from the region, mainly China, onto the London flight.

If they were to persue an option via Latin America, with slots at GRU scarce, then maybe 4 flights via GRU, and 3 via Lima/Bogota (both future Star hubs).

BusinessTraveller - 26/01/2012 12:34

ANZ has listened. From March 27 it will retime its Hong Kong-London flight to depart at 1000, to reach Heathrow at 1615.

Alex McWhirter

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