Air New Zealand will move into America’s heartland from November as launches its first service to Chicago O’Hare International Airport and deepens its alliance with United Airlines.
The new route, part of the Kiwi carrier’s push to extend its international services, comes as United announced it would extend its seasonal San Francisco service to year-round from April 2019.
United will operate will operate a three times weekly service that will complement Air New Zealand’s daily service. It will use a Boeing 777-300ER featuring its Polaris business class between November and March and B777-200ER between April and October.
Air New Zealand will operate the new ultra-long-haul route, which will take about 15 hours northbound and just over 16 hours southbound, three times weekly with newly configured Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
Read Air New Zealand’s 10th Dreamliner is built for comfort.
Chicago is United’s home base and will Air New Zealand passengers access to about 100 code share destinations across the US.
Air New Zealand chief executive has long been of the option that there is an undeveloped tourism potential in the US and the new route will also allow the carrier to offer a new market to New Zealanders and Australians.
“We expect the addition of Chicago to our network to be an attractive option for Kiwis wanting to explore the city or head on to other North American destinations,” Luxon said in the announcement.
“As well as being great for travelers, this new route is good news for New Zealand, as we expect it to contribute around $NZ70 million annually to our economy and we know that more than 50 percent of spending by US visitors to New Zealand is done outside of the main centers.
“We’ll be working along side our colleagues at United Airlines to grow the route and visitor numbers in both directions.”
United international network vice president Patrick Quayle said the increased San Francisco service and the new Air NZ route would offer US passengers more ways to get to New Zealand.
“Today’s announcements are great examples of the customer benefits that result from the strong, strategic alliance and partnership between United Airlines and Air New Zealand,” he said.
Air NZ is pursuing a strategy to increase its services around the Pacific Rim and in February announced it would start non-stop flights to Tapei from November.
Read Air NZ expects its second-highest annual profit as it heads to Tapei.
It said at that time it expected international capacity growth in the second half of its financial year, which ends June 30, would be about 5 per cent.
