Carry on: Comparing the longest, the quickest and the best flights

Emirates’ new non-stop flight between Auckland and Dubai will make the trip to Europe several hours shorter and also save the hassles for transit visas in Australia that apply to many travellers from the Middle East and Africa.

But how does it compare with the fastest times between Auckland and London by other routes?

This depends on the length of the stopovers. The advantage here is with Air New Zealand's flight via Los Angeles using the one aircraft. It needs only to refuel and get a new crew.

With a two-hour stopover, this is the quickest way to fly from Auckland to London, at 24 hours 45 minutes, followed by Air New Zealand’s new Houston link with a two-hour connection on United (25 hours 25 minutes).

Singapore Airlines via Singapore at 27 hours and five minutes is the same as flying the new Emirates service via Dubai.

The quickest from London to Auckland is southbound on Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand at just under 24 hours and just a one-hour stopover at Changi.

That’s followed by British Airways and Air New Zealand via Hong Kong at just five minutes longer while Emirates via Dubai will be 24 hours exactly. Korean Air via Incheon is almost as quick at 24 hours 20 minutes and a 2:25 hour stopover.

Departure and arrivals times should be taken into consideration. For example, the fastest London-Auckland trip leaves at midday and arrives just before midnight, while the closest option leaves at 10pm and arrives at 11am.

(Although a number of websites offer the above comparisons, the easiest is Google Flights.)

As for the best flight options, if you can log on to Routehappy and judge flights on a qualitative basis – all you need to know about prices but also what you get in onboard amenities, such as wi-fi, seat sizes, etc.

Air NZ unifies main trunk timetable
Air New Zealand has scheduled its new on-the-hour main trunk timetables for Auckland-Christchurch and Auckland-Wellington starting on Monday, May 2. Auckland departures to Christchurch will run hourly between 6am and 9pm, with half-hour flights at 7.30am and 7.30pm. Christchurch departures run mostly on the hour, too, with exceptions at 5.40am and 6.40am and also at 1.30pm and 5.30pm. 

Auckland to Wellington flights also depart at the top of the hour between 7am and 9pm (plus 6.30am, 7.30am, 4.30pm and 5.30pm). Wellington departures run 15 minutes before the hour with extra flights at quarter past the hour, with the latest at 8.45pm.

Singapore boosts popular routes
Singapore Airlines is adding peak-season capacity to its most popular destinations, such as Bangkok, Colombo, Milan, Rome, Sydney, Ahmedabad and Mumbai from March 27 to October 29.

A sixth daily Bangkok service using an Airbus A330-300 will add nearly 2000 seats a week on the route while frequency to Colombo will increase to 10 a week from the usual seven. Milan services will increase to six a week from five, including two flights that continue to Barcelona.

Düsseldorf will become the newest destination on July 21. These flights will operate three times a week with the all-new Airbus A350-900.

Boeing cleared for Iran takeoff
The US government has cleared Boeing to begin talking to approved Iranian carriers about their fleet needs. However, Boeing will still need a separate licence to complete any commercial jetliner sales. Airbus, which has fewer restrictions on trading with Iran, grabbed an early lead with a $US27 billion order announced on the day nuclear sanctions were eased last month.

While its European aerospace rivals began scoping out potential sales last year, Boeing wasn’t allowed to veer beyond safety-related items such as the aircraft maintenance manuals it sold to Iran Air Tours.

Air New Zealand deploys 3D printers
The revelation that Air New Zealand has been working with AUT experts to manufacture the fold down cocktail trays for its premium business cabins again displays its innovative bent.

The news was picked up around the world. 3D printing, also known as additive layer manufacturing, replaces the need to hold the tens of thousands of parts that go into aircraft interiors.

Chief operations officer Bruce Parton says, “Not only can't we hold stock of every replacement part we might need, we often only require a small number of units which can be really expensive to produce using traditional manufacturing methods and can involve frustrating delays while a replacement part is delivered.

“A big advantage of 3D printing is that it allows us to make cost-effective lightweight parts ourselves, and to do so quickly without compromising on safety, strength or durability.”

Air New Zealand hopes to start installing the 3D printed trays in coming weeks, pending final regulatory approval.

Route news of the week
Air India will launch a new Delhi-Vienna route on April 6, using Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners on three flights a week. Lufthansa is delaying the planned launch of its Munich-Tehran route. It was previously scheduled to begin in late March. The three times weekly Airbus A330-300 operation will now start on July 4. Malaysia Airlines will enter phase two of codeshare partnership with Emirates on March 1. This will see the MH code being placed on routes beyond Dubai, operated by Emirates. The destinations are Bahrain
, Barcelona
, Frankfurt
, Geneva
, Lyon
,Madrid
, Nice
, Paris CDG
, Rome
, Stockholm
 and Zurich.

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