Air NZ to fly Dreamliners on Hawaii route

Monday, 23 Nov, 2015 0

Air New Zealand is upgrading service and adding more seats on its Hawaii route next year.

The carrier is putting Dreamliners on the Auckland-Hawaii four-times a week service from May 2016.

Air NZ’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners have an average age of just six months compared to the 20-year old Boeing 767-300ER aircraft it currently flies on the route, the airline said.

The 302-seat Dreamliners also add nearly 20% more seat capacity.

Air NZ earlier said it would retime the service to an evening departure out of Auckland to coordinate with onward flight connections provided by code share partner United Airlines.

This will take effect from March 29. 2016.

"These changes will better enable customers based in New Zealand’s regional centres and Australia to fly to Honolulu within the one day, rather than needing to overnight in Auckland as many currently do. In turn, the revised arrival time in Honolulu allows customers to conveniently connect onto domestic services in Hawaii," said Air New Zealand chief sales and commercial officer Cam Wallace.

The airline is facing increased competition in the trans-pacific market with the recent announcement American Airlines will begin flying daily to Auckland from Los Angeles in an alliance with its joint venture partner Qantas.

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