pepsi1336

CAPA and stuff.co.nz are reporting that Chengdu, China could be Air NZ's next long haul route.

'Air NZ could open the service before the end of 2016, in time for the beginning of New Zealand's peak tourism season', the report said.

Sichuan Airlines has also said to be interested in flying the AKL-CTU route. Cant imagine it is a big enough route for 2 carriers, or maybe they will play their old trick of starting a JV with them.

Thoughts on this?

http://centreforaviation.com/analysi...-manila-276055

http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/7...on-report-says

Mart81

Been there once, no desire to go back.

I also share your thoughts about 2 carriers. The only benefit I can see is that BA have a direct flight from CTU to LHR, however BA is obviously not in *A.. but it would provide another hopping point to Europe.

ps107

Would've been handy for me a year ago. Have flown AKL-CTU once and AKL-CKG (Chongqing) five times in the last year or so. The international terminals at CTU and CKG are so much easier to deal with than the overcrowded domestic and then the lottery of whether or not your domestic flight will leave on time. Always try to transit through HKG or BKK for less stress.

Would've thought Sichuan Airlines would be a bit too obscure, although they're probably a bigger airline than NZ.

Maybe they should make it WLG-CTU in lieu of the panda deal.

Xiaotung

No chance of a Sichuan Airlines alliance given CTU is also Air China's hub. It's safe to say CTU will fall under the NZ-CA JV as well.

CA has also announced non-stop CTU-SYD so NZ would also be able to sell dual destination itinerary to Chengdu customers.

CHCflyer

I am sure NZ will be drinking from the same well as Air France/KLM/BA/United.

http://centreforaviation.com/analysi...-growth-200611

cavemanzk

NZ already sells AKL-(AISA)-LHR tickets which connect onto BA on there website, so CTU would just add another option.

Have recently done ZRH-PVG-AKL, I would happily go via China again.

sbiddle

While this was on the cards it's apparently now been shelved with the 763's now being scrapped earlier than planned.

Kiwiwings

I can't help but wonder if Air NZ could do with some A330's with little to no premium cabin, to replace the 767's on routes with low premium yield. What is the utilization like for the 787's?

Kamadan

It has been stated before by both Mr. Fyfe and Mr. Luxon that they will simply NZ's fleet to as few types as possible, which translate to:

Boeing Wide-Body Long-Haul fleet: 777-200ER, 777-300ER and 787-9
Airbus Narrow-Body Short-Haul fleet: Airbus 320(ceo) and 320neo/321neo

As evident by the retirement of 747s/767s for Long Haul and 737s for Short Haul.

There is a 99.99% certainty that NZ will NOT be looking at any other types - i.e. A330 is never going to happen.

When the 777-200ER frames (and -300ER) are due for replacement in a decade's time, most likely it'll be the 777X family, to keep training/pilot/type commonality within the LH fleet.

sbiddle

I've actually heard the A350 is being seriously considered. I wouldn't rule that out.

Kiwiwings

According to the NZ Herald Air New Zealand will consider the A350 for the 777 replacement. The one big selling point the A350 has is that it is the longest range airliner and can comfortably reach New York. However with Air NZ's pacific rim focus, that may not be of interest.

Kamadan

I stand corrected.

However... every Airline executive, when asked about fleet renewal plans, will ALWAYS say that "X" is being looked at seriously. Business School 101, always publicly keep your options open, for more negotiation power.

So yeah, no doubt NZ is indeed looking at both A350 and 777X.

But I'll still put money on 777X being the eventual winner... already having the 787-9 configured at 302 seats in the fleet, I can't see the A350 family being a good fit capacity wise... the 777-8X makes more sense if NZ wants to go for a long range NZ-US East Coast non-stop plane, or -9X to bump up capacity for a -300ER replacement.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see!

sbiddle

Even though it'll never happen the 748 IMHO would be the perfect plane for NZ on the LAX & SFO routes. They could have even more premium seats than they can on the 77W and more seats overall. The problem is having maybe 3 or 4 of a type makes no sense.

Kiwiwings

I absolutely agree that in all likelihood the old 777's will be replaced with new 777's. However the A320 family is limited in range which restricts to Australia and the Pacific Islands when operating from Auckland. The 787 has less premium seating but still dedicates more than a third of its cabin space to premium seating, I doubt the premium seating is particularly profitable on routes to leisure and undeveloped/3rd world destinations. The 767 filled this role nicely with a 9/10ths of the plane dedicated to economy seating. Destinations such as Indonesian, Vietnam, India, Osaka, and China seem to be be suited to an aircraft such as the A330 or a reconfigured 777/787 with all economy seating. The one other advantage with the A330 is that it shares a common type rating with the A320 meaning that in theory A320 pilots are certified to fly it. However keeping the types of aircraft in the fleet to a minimum is probably more important that any benefits gained here .

Xiaotung

Well, Sichuan Airlines today have applied for 3 weekly CTU-AKL services from December 2016 using A330. I guess it means NZ will no longer be interested in this route?