AA’s first New Zealand flights to debut in June 2016.
American Airlines and Qantas have just confirmed that AA will launch direct flights between Los Angeles and Auckland in June next year.
The move will bring competition to the route which has been an Air New Zealand monopoly for some years, since Qantas suspended its NZ-USA services.
Qantas will codeshare on the new AA New Zealand flights, with ceo Alan Joyce saying the operation would also be supported with feed from Jetstar’s domestic connections to 11 destinations within New Zealand, and the Qantas Group’s almost 40 daily flights to Australia.
The Auckland-Los Angeles flights will depart Auckland at 1.20pm and arrive into LAX at 6.30am the same day. The return service departs Los Angeles at 10.45pm and lands in Auckland at 6.35am two days later.
The route will utilise AA’s new 787-8 Dreamliner aircraft configured with 28 lie-flat business class seats, 55 ‘main cabin extra’ seats with additional legroom and 143 main cabin seats.
More details in today’s issue of Travel Daily.