After 2 Year COVID Delay, Air New Zealand Plans To Fly Nonstop To NYC, But With A Change Of Airports

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In an October 2019 news roundup, I wrote about Air New Zealand’s plans to fly nonstop from Newark to Auckland. That service was supposed to have started in October 2020.

The country closed for COVID in March 2020 and the service launch was postponed.

But New Zealand will reopen to most foreign nationals on May 2nd if they are fully vaccinated without the need to quarantine, though pre-travel testing and testing upon arrival will be required.

And the airline is now selling nonstop flights from JFK to Auckland, with 3 weekly flights starting on September 17th.

The flight clocks in at 17.5 hours, or about 75 minutes shorter than the world’s longest commercial flight, JFK to Singapore.

However Singapore doesn’t offer an economy class section on that ultra long-haul flight, while Air New Zealand will. All the more reason to splurge for Air New Zealand’s SkyCouch I suppose? The flight will offer 27 seats in Business, 33 in Premium Economy, 215 in Economy, and 13 Economy Skycouches.

Interestingly, the airline changed their NYC plans from Newark to JFK during the delay. As a Star Alliance carrier, Newark would have been a natural fit with connecting feed provided by United. However, slots at JFK have become much easier to land due to the pandemic, which may have convinced the airline to move its flagship route to NYC’s flagship airport. After all, they also fly to United’s hubs in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco for connecting feed, while they presumably hope to get enough nonstop traffic on the JFK route so that it doesn’t need connecting feed to profitably fill the 787-9.

While Omicron currently rages in New Zealand, the death toll has remained among the lowest in the world, likely thanks to high vaccination rate. That contrasts well with fellow zero COVID Hong Kong, which has seen thousands die of COVID over the past month, likely due to its low vaccination rate.

As I noted when Air New Zealand had wide open business class space in 2019, Virgin Atlantic charges just 62.5K miles one-way in business class for Air New Zealand flights to New Zealand and there are no fuel surcharges. You can get a 30% bonus when you transfer AMEX points to Virgin Atlantic, meaning you’ll need just 48,076 AMEX points for a business class flight. Unfortunately, you do need to call Virgin Atlantic to book travel on Air New Zealand at 800-365-9500. You can search for Air New Zealand award space on United.com.

Air New Zealand does not appear to have released any award space on the new JFK route yet.

Read about the beautiful country in the New Zealand Master Thread on DDF here.

Will you fly nonstop from JFK to Auckland?