From Stuff New Zealand – link to source story
John Anthony12:17, Jul 07 2021
Air New Zealand is bringing back long-haul routes it suspended in early 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and is increasing frequencies on the few long-haul services it has been operating.
From October 31 to December 31, the national carrier has added flights from Auckland to San Francisco, Vancouver, Honolulu and Singapore.
It is also adding a Christchurch to Singapore route to its schedule, a route it flew for two months before the pandemic.
Air New Zealand general manager of networks Scott Carr said services were subject to change in line with global travel and border restrictions.
“As much as we wish the addition of the long-haul flights to our schedule meant the reopening of the borders, unfortunately it does not,” Carr said.
The schedule reflected the flying that Air New Zealand would undertake should the Government’s Maintaining International Air Connectivity scheme be extended, he said.
“It also provides Kiwis that are wanting to return home after October 31 some certainty around when we intend to operate in order for them to secure their MIQ spaces.”
In March last year, Air New Zealand announced significant capacity reductions across its network as a result of the impact of Covid-19 on travel.
Long-haul network reductions included the suspension of flights between Auckland and Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Vancouver, Tokyo, Honolulu, Denpasar and Taipei.
It also brought forward the axing of its London-Los Angeles service and closed its Auckland-Buenos Aires route.
For the first half of this year, Air New Zealand’s long-haul services have been limited to Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul, all departing from Auckland.
Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Shanghai were twice-weekly flights, while Tokyo and Seoul were once weekly.
In May, American Airlines and Air Canada started selling summer airfares to New Zealand on previously suspended routes.
New Zealand’s Treasury has made forecasts based on an assumption of a significant reopening of the border from January and the Government expects New Zealand’s vaccine roll-out to be mostly completed by the end of 2021.
Business adviser to the Government on its Covid-19 recovery plan, and former Air New Zealand chief executive, Rob Fyfe said businesses should be planning for the border to open at the end of the year but also for borders being closed in two or three years time as a result of new variants of Covid-19 emerging.
Air New Zealand’s updated schedule from October 31 to December 31, 2021, is below.
Auckland-Los Angeles: Three return flights per week
Auckland-San Francisco: Three return flights per week
Auckland-Vancouver: Three return flights per week
Auckland-Honolulu: Three return flights per week
Auckland-Hong Kong: One return flight per week
Auckland-Tokyo: One return flight per week
Auckland-Shanghai: Seven return flights per week
Auckland-Taipei: One return flight per month
Auckland-Seoul: One return flight per month
Auckland-Singapore: Seven return services per week
Christchurch-Singapore: Five return services per week from November 30
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