American Airlines & United Airlines Gear Up For New Zealand Return

October will be a great month for anyone in Australasia who wants to get to North America. With new direct services coming onboard during the month and into November, New Zealand’s gateway of Auckland will be the most connected Australasian city to North America, with five airlines operating direct flights to eight destinations.

The big guns are flocking back to NZ

United Airlines is resuming its San Francisco to Auckland route with a Boeing B777, although it had planned to use the B787 Dreamliner. Photo: Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flying

Three carriers, American Airlines, United Airlines and Air New Zealand, are adding or resuming services in October, with Air Canada joining on November 12th. In addition to increased routes to North America, Auckland Airport (AKL) is seeing services to Taiwan, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates start before the end of the year.

Looking at the United States, the first of these resumes next week when United Airlines (United) relaunches non-stop flights between Auckland and San Francisco International Airport (SFO) on October 4th. United launched this service in 2016, but it was suspended in March 2020 due to the pandemic and border closures. The first inbound flight to Auckland, UA917, is due to depart San Francisco on Saturday, October 1 and arrive in Auckland at 08:20 on Monday.

Flightradar24.com data shows a Boeing B777-200ER, registration N78013, is operating the flight, although previously, it was scheduled to be one of United’s 63 B787 aircraft. The first United flight from Auckland to San Francisco, flight UA916, is due to depart on Tuesday at 14:30 and arrive in San Francisco the same day at 06:40. The service will run three times a week, competing directly with Air New Zealand flight NZ8, which is operated with a B777-300ER also three times weekly.

At the end of the month, American Airlines (American) aircraft will return after its COVID-induced break when the carrier resumes flights between Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Auckland. The originating flight AA35 departs DFW at 22:44 on Saturday, October 29th and lands in Auckland at 07:45, two days later. It then leaves as AA34 on Tuesday, November 1st at 12:40 and arrives back in Dallas at 08:24 on the same day. The route is scheduled to operate daily on a Boeing B787, with a 15-hour flight from the US to New Zealand and a return flight of 13:44 hours.

A 20% boost to North American capacity

Air New Zealand will have direct services to seven North American destinations in November. Photo: Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flying

Also, late in October, Air New Zealand is resuming its three times weekly non-stop service from Auckland to Chicago. Air Canada is adding to North American capacity, starting three times weekly direct flights from Auckland to Vancouver International Airport (YVR) from November 12th. In November, Auckland will have five airlines, Air New Zealand, American, United, Air Canada and Hawaiian Airlines, operating direct flights to eight destinations in North America. AKL’s general manager of customer and aero commercial, Scott Tasker, said that the new October services are adding nearly 14,000 seats or around 20% seat capacity month-on-month between New Zealand and North America, taking overall seat capacity to close to 82,000 seats.

“Capacity gets another bump with the return of Air Canada in November, and when you add in the existing Air New Zealand services to Los Angeles, Honolulu, Houston, San Francisco, Vancouver and New York, plus the Hawaiian Airlines connection to Honolulu, there are really plenty of great options for travelers connecting between here and North America.”

Around 13,000 passengers are heading to the US from Auckland in October, making it the Kiwi’s second most popular destination after Australia. With all of this new capacity to North America, inbound tourism to NZ is set for a very healthy summer season as the pandemic-era restrictions disappear.