The All Blacks will help celebrate Air New Zealand's maiden service to London via Hong Kong tonight, travelling privately in Business Premier and becoming one of the first passengers to experience the airline's new route.
The inaugural second daily service to London, which departs tonight at 11.59pm, will increase Air New Zealand's current capacity between the United Kingdom and New Zealand by nearly 80 percent.
"Demand for travel between New Zealand and the United Kingdom has steadily increased since introducing our daily service in 1998," said Air New Zealand Group General Manager International Airline Ed Sims.
"This signficant capacity increase allows us to meet the high market demand but also stimulate new travellers to the UK and Europe over Hong Kong. The new service also means Air New Zealand will have the distinction of being the only airline to offer a round the world service into and out of New Zealand, flying via Hong Kong in the East or Los Angeles in the West," said Mr Sims.
"This gives travellers the option of flying around the world with stopovers at either Hollywood or Kowloon, for the price of a return New Zealand to London fare."
Air New Zealand will be the only Star Alliance carrier to operate between Hong Kong and London.
The airline will operate the new route utilising newly refurbished Boeing 747-400 aircraft. The 386-seat aircraft includes 46 fully lie-flat Business Premier seats, 31 Pacific Premium Economy seats and 309 seats in Pacific Economy, all with on demand audio-visual entertainment.
Return Pacific Economy airfares to London start from $2754 inclusive of taxes. Customers have the option to stop over in either Los Angeles or Hong Kong (additional taxes will apply).
Air New Zealand is also currently offering an Early Bird return Pacific Economy airfare of $2304 inclusive of taxes, for sale until 15 December 2006 for travel between 1 February and 31 October 2007.
Air New Zealand's new second daily London service via Hong Kong:
| Schedule | Flight Time | ||
| Flight No. NZ39 | |||
| Departs Arrives |
AKL HKG |
2355 0615+1 |
11:20 |
| Departs Arrives |
HKG LHR |
0815 1335 |
13:20 |
| Flight No. NZ38 | |||
| Departs Arrives |
LHR HKG |
2115 1700+1 |
11:45 |
| Departs Arrives |
HKG AKL |
1900 1045+1 |
10:45 |
ENDS
Issued by Air New Zealand Public Affairs. Ph: 9 336 2761
NOTE: The content of all Air New Zealand media releases are accurate at the time of issue, as stated at the top of each release. For updates on any changes, please contact Air New Zealand.
Air New Zealand is proud to be a member of Star Alliance. The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer worldwide reach, recognition and seamless service to the international traveller. Its acceptance by the market has been recognised by numerous awards, including the Air Transport World Market Leadership Award, Best Airline Alliance by both Business Traveller Magazine and Skytrax. The member airlines are: Adria Airways, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Blue1, bmi, Continental Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines, THAI, United and US Airways. Aegean Airlines, Air India, Brussels Airlines and TAM have been announced as future members. Overall, the Star Alliance network offers 19,500 daily flights to 1,071 airports in 171 countries.
For more information about Air New Zealand visit www.airnewzealand.com and for more information about Star Alliance visit www.staralliance.com.
