Alan Granville and Siobhan Downes
Qantas will fly to New York City from June next year. Photo: iStock
Qantas has announced that it will fly to New York’s JFK airport from Sydney via Auckland from June 14.
The flights will be operated by Boeing 787 Dreamliners, with three new planes scheduled for delivery next year.
It will be in direct competition with Air New Zealand, which will launch service to JFK in September using the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
Like Air New Zealand, Qantas will operate three flights a week on the route, which takes around 16 hours.
The return trip will take about 17 and a half hours, making it one of the longest flights in the world.
Qantas will operate its flights to New York on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, while Air New Zealand’s will operate on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
Qantas has numbered its flights QF3 and QF4, while Air New Zealand’s are NZ1 and NZ2.
Flights went on sale Thursday, starting at $1,227 one-way for first service June 14. Air New Zealand has nonstop flights available that week for a little cheaper, starting at $937.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said flying via Auckland rather than Los Angeles, as the airline previously offered, would provide better connectivity from more destinations in Australia.
“We think this route will be very popular with Australians given the opportunity to connect via Auckland and it also gives New Zealanders more choice.”
Qantas currently operates six daily services to Auckland from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, which will increase to 11 daily services when the new flight to New York is launched.
Responding to the news, Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran said the airline was excited to start its own flights in just over three weeks.
“We welcome the competition and look forward to greeting Qantas in the sky in nine months.”
Qantas also has plans to launch nonstop flights from Sydney to New York in 2025, a route that will take around 20 hours. These flights, and other planned ultra-long-haul routes, will be operated using the fleet of 12 Airbus A350-1000s ordered by the airline.
Qantas has also announced plans for a large new lounge at Auckland Airport, to link with the new route.
The airline’s two existing lounge spaces will be combined and refurbished into a single Qantas International lounge, and will also be expanded into adjacent space to increase capacity by approximately 40 per cent, from 244 seats to 340 seats.
The airline said the design process would begin shortly and construction work would be organized so the lounge could continue to function during the refurbishment.
It would offer a number of features designed specifically for long-haul travel, the airline said.
Stuff.co.nz
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