Christopher Luxon pushes for direct New Zealand-India flights amid growing demand

Christopher Luxon, pictured with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the 'time is right' to revisit air routes and direct services between New Zealand and India. Photo / Interest.co.nz

• Prime Minister Christopher Luxon advocates for direct flights between India and Auckland, citing growing demand.
• The Herald understands Air NZ’s outgoing chief executive is also in India and intends to reveal further plans related to the subcontinent later this week.
• India is New Zealand’s largest group of migrant arrivals, according to Stats NZ.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says there is a good case for demand beginning to take shape for direct flights between New Zealand and India.

This morning on Newstalk ZB, Mike Hosking asked Luxon, currently on an official state visit to India, why Air New Zealand does not have direct flights from the subcontinent given the immigration flow.

Luxon agreed with Hosking, admitting that he had not seen recent analysis but was “pushing all airlines really hard”.

“I think [given] the growth in the numbers of international tourists, international students, remembering every student brings in three or four other visitors in a given year, I think there’s a really good case to say there must be demand starting to build from at least New Delhi or Mumbai into Auckland directly.

“I know our airlines on both sides are actually very keen to try to see whether they can work together to make that happen.”

However, according to the Prime Minister, the significant issue delaying plans for a direct service is demand.

“You’ve got to make sure that when you’ve got capital deployed with two big aircraft doing a daily service, you’ve got to cover costs.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Luxon India needed 2000 more aircraft and his Government planned to increase the number of airports in the country from 150 to 250 in the next two to three years.

“It’s expensive, but equally, you’ve got to have confidence to go grow this market, and this is a market where the middle classes are just growing at such a rate,” Luxon said.

“Two hundred and fifty million people are being lifted out of poverty and as they go out into the middle class, they are saving money for retirement, they want to go travelling, they want to make sure they invest in their kids’ education.

“We’ve got to get our share of that money and that’s why I think the time is right to revisit air routes and direct services.”

Stats NZ data reveal India is New Zealand’s largest group of migrant arrivals, with 33,900 in the September 2024 year.

While Air NZ declined to comment on the matter when approached by the Herald, the Herald understands its outgoing chief executive Greg Foran, who will be staying in the job until October, is in New Delhi joining Modi’s business delegation, with plans to reveal the airline’s thinking on India later this week.

Last August, Foran revealed Air NZ was “very interested in exploring new routes to India, indicating that the region is developing for the national carrier as a market”.

Speaking to RNZ, Foran said: “We’ve got a lot of traffic heading there now that get on our Singapore flight.”

Varsha Anjali is a journalist in the NZ Herald Lifestyle team. Based in Auckland, she covers travel, culture and more.