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Air New Zealand has announced that it plans to temporarily boost the number of flights that it offers to one of its key destinations – Los Angeles will see more Air New Zealand flights from mid-August.
More flights to Los Angeles
As things stand, Air New Zealand offers a year-round daily service between Auckland and Los Angeles using Boeing 777 and Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
Between 15 August and 29 October 2022, however, Air New Zealand will increase the number of weekly flights on this route to 10 as it introduces a new (albeit temporary) second flight that will operate 3x/week.
Here’s the planned schedule for the period in question:
NZ6 AKL 20:15 – 13:20 LAX (Daily)
NZ4 AKL 23:15 – 16:20 LAX (Wed, Fri & Sun)*
NZ5 LAX 21:50 – 05:45+2 days AKL (Daily)
NZ3 LAX 22:50 – 06:45+2 days AKL (Wed, Fri & Sun)*
*New temporary service
While, currently, the daily service between Auckland and LA is being operated by a 777 featuring 44 Business Class seats, 54 Premium Economy seats, and 244 Economy Class seats, the new 3x/week service will be operated by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner with noticeably smaller cabins premium cabins – 18 Business Class seats, 21 Premium Economy seats, and 263 Economy Class seats.
Sadly, because the new flights are being operated with relatively small premium cabins, it doesn’t look as if award availability on this route has been improved by the increase in capacity – at the time of writing, United.com is still charging 200k miles one-way for Business Class.
Bottom line
Air New Zealand may not have the broadest of international route networks (it doesn’t even fly to London anymore) but it’s still a popular airline to fly thanks to its friendly crews and innovative seating and that’s why it’s nice to see the airline increasing its capacity (albeit for a limited time) on its routes to Los Angeles and Seoul.
