Air New Zealand has announced that they’ll start flying nonstop between Auckland and Newark as of October 2020.
The route will operate 3x weekly year-round using a Boeing 787-9. This ultra long haul flight will cover a distance of 8,810 miles in each direction, and will be blocked at 15hr40min eastbound and 17hr40min westbound.
This will be Air New Zealand’s longest route, and the fifth longest flight in the world by distance.
As part of this decision, Air New Zealand has also announced that they’ll be canceling flights to London as of October 2020.
The airline has been flying to London since 1982, but it has proven an increasingly challenging market for them, given that they’ve needed to operate a one-stop routing.