Air NZ steps up competition on Hawaiian route
The Pacific Island holiday destination has become more popular with two airlines on the route.
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Hawke’s Bay
Air New Zealand [NZX: AIR] is making its Honolulu service more competitive and convenient by changing the timetable and upgrading the aircraft.
From March 29, flights will leave Auckland in the evening (8.55pm) rather than in the morning, while Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will replace the ageing Boeing 767-300s.
The return flight from Honolulu will move from an evening departure to mornings (9.40am or 10am, depending on the day).
The four times a week service will also be increased to five during the mid-year school holidays, July 4-26, and the current Sunday return flight will move to Friday.
Other flights are operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (departures), returning the next day. The extra July flights will be on Mondays.
Air New Zealand chief sales and commercial officer Cam Wallace says the Dreamliner will introduce Economy Skycouch and Premium Economy seating to the route as well as increase capacity by almost 20%.
“These changes will better enable customers based in New Zealand’s regional centres and Australia to fly to Honolulu within the one day, rather than needing to overnight in Auckland as many currently do,” he says.
“In turn, the revised arrival time in Honolulu allows customers to conveniently connect on to domestic services in Hawaii.”
Competition and passenger volumes on the Hawaii route have substantially increased since the entrance of Hawaiian Airlines a couple of years ago using the latest Airbus A330s widebodied jets.
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Nevil Gibson
Thu, 19 Nov 2015
Thu, 19 Nov 2015
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Air NZ steps up competition on Hawaiian route
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