The first Qantas long-haul flight form Auckland to New York has taken flight.
Video / Michael Craig
Qantas boss Alan Joyce says the airline has minimised risks of flight disruption problems Air New Zealand hit with a few New York-Auckland flights.
Just before taking off on the inaugural non-stop flight to the Big Apple out of Auckland, Joyce said the Qantas aircraft was especially designed for ultra-longhaul routes.
The aircraft being used on the route - which originates in Sydney - was spotted flying into Auckland this afternoon.
The 14,200km westward flight back from New York to Auckland must navigate storms over the United States and strong jetstream winds at high altitude. In more than 120 flights, Air New Zealand has had to put down in Nadi for “gas and go” fuel stops three times and has had to offload some bags at times.
Qantas and Air New Zealand are both using Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners but the Australian airline’s plane has fewer seats (236 versus 275), which saves weight and fuel.
Joyce was speaking at Auckland Airport alongside former Air New Zealand executive Cam Wallace, who is now head of Qantas International.
Joyce said that was one key difference in the Qantas operation.
The airline was already flying two of the five longest non-stop flights in the world: Perth to London and Melbourne to Dallas Fort Worth. Auckland-New York was the fifth longest flight.
Qantas planes have GE engines which Joyce said could fly “a bit further” than the Rolls-Royce power units on Air New Zealand’s Dreamliners.
A cloud-based navigation system allowed another 1 per cent to 2 per cent efficiency.
“There’s a few differences between our operation and the Air New Zealand one; we have an aircraft that has less seats on it because it’s designed for very long-haul flying,” Joyce said.
“There’s always going to be occasions where there may be the diversions and I think Air New Zealand has handled them very well. But what we hope is that we can minimise the ones that occur because of the way that we operate the aircraft.”
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce at Auckland Airport before the New York flight. Photo / Michael Craig
Wallace, who worked for Air NZ for nearly 20 years, said the Kiwi market was coming back strongly and there was strong interest in the new connection to New York.
“We think these flights are going to be hugely successful, which is one of the reasons we’ve added even more capacity in from later in the year.”
Qantas is flying a barely used Dreamliner for its inaugural Auckland-New York flight but the aircraft is three years old. The aircraft, VH-ZNL and named Billabong, was parked up in the Californian desert early in 2020 when the pandemic hit as Qantas opted to have it stored in a dry environment to protect it.
It joined the Qantas fleet in early May. Like its other 12 Dreamliners, it doesn’t have Wi Fi. Joyce said network reliability problems meant it wasn’t offered on Transpacific - yet. New Airbust A350-1000s will have Wi Fi and when satellite coverage improved, Qantas would look to refit its Dreamliners.
Joyce said he expected airfares across the Pacific to moderate as more airline capacity was introduced and competition increased. “We’ve gone through a period of time now where demand has exceeded supply - people haven’t been able to travel for a number of years.”
Qantas had faced a training logjam to get crew back on planes.
“In our case, we had A380 pilots driving buses in Sydney for two years.”
While prices would not go below pre-Covid levels because of four years of inflation, there were more special fares in the market and international fares were moderating. Lead-in Auckland-New York return economy fares start at $2113 return and business $11,193.
Flights which originate in Sydney will initially operate three days per week, increasing to four per week from October, offering more than 1800 seats on the route each week. Air New Zealand flies on different days, three times a week. The Qantas Group is expected to return to around 100 per cent of its international network pre-Covid capacity by March next year, up from around 85 per cent of pre-Covid levels today.
* The Herald travelled to New York courtesy of Qantas.
Grant Bradley joined the Herald in 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
