Air New Zealand will fly to New York City three times weekly, year-round using its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft in its latest, premium-focused configuration. Flights will start from 17 September, landing at JFK Airport. Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran says with a short stopover in Auckland, customers will enjoy Air New Zealand's award-winning cabin experience, and literally wake up in the city that never sleeps.
"New York is an iconic yet familiar city, a bucket list item. We're thrilled to be able to offer our Australian customers more choice to get to North America, connecting onto our flagship Auckland – New York flights from our nine Australian ports. As an international service from start to finish, it's a unique proposition and really is the easiest way to get to the Big Apple, on the World's Safest Airline.
"We've worked hard over the last few years to make this ultra-long-haul service a reality – it's one of the longest routes in the world. To ensure customers arrive in New York feeling refreshed, we've put a lot of thought into the onboard experience and teams are working around the clock to make sure this is a great flying experience.
"The US has always been a key market for us, and this new route cements our commitment to growing tourism opportunities with Australia, New Zealand and the US."
Air New Zealand is now serving seven destinations in North America – Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angles, San Francisco, Vancouver - and soon - New York.
To celebrate, Air NZ is on sale with Flat Beds with business class flights to North America starting from just $4979 including taxes. That's the sale fare from Sydney-Vancouver, with LA and San Francisco next from $5981 including taxes. You'll need to pay quite a bit more to get to NYC though, with rates starting in the low $10k price range. Still, compared to return prices to NYC from Qantas and other competitors across the Pacific, pricing is reasonable with a decent saving against what Qantas is asking and the unique proposition of not having to stopover at a West Coast or Texas gateway city.