This week we’re looking at a story we released on January 20, 2014 about Air New Zealand and Singapore Airlines forming an alliance, enabling Air NZ to resume flights between Auckland and Singapore.
You can read the original story here: Air New Zealand to Return to Singapore Through SIA Alliance
Subject to regulatory approval, the carriers were aiming to boost their existing capacity between NZ and Singapore by up to 30 percent.
Under the agreement, Air NZ would take over the operation of five of SIA’s existing flights on the Auckland – Singapore route, boosting the frequency to a daily schedule. The route was set to be served using a newly refitted Boeing 777-200ER, marking the airlines first flights on the route since it was suspended in 2006.
The proposed alliance would allow Air NZ passengers to access codeshare travel on the SIA network to South East Asia, the UK, Europe and Africa as well as on the network of its regional subsidiary airline, SilkAir. SIA customers would be able to access codeshare travel across the Air NZ domestic network and to selected international destinations, significantly enhancing connectivity options.
A year on and Air New Zealand has just recently launched the route (January 6, 2015), operating a daily return service between Auckland and Singapore, while Singapore Airlines will also operate a daily return service between Christchurch and Singapore.
Chief Sales and Commercial Director, Cam Wallace said the alliance was partly in response to the maturing alliance between Qantas and Emirates which was taking New Zealand passengers to Europe via Australia and Dubai.
"There's no doubt that we want to be as competitive as we possibly can against the QF-EK alliance and part of that is convincing customers that there's a more efficient and effective transfer point with a high quality carrier."
Air New Zealand will also open up a new route later this year with a three-time weekly service to Argentina's capital city Buenos Aires. You can read our story on this growth here: 'Air New Zealand Sets Course for South America'.
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