Since the start of this year the airline has had a team looking at how to address the challenges of the poor operating economics of its 19-seat fleet while at the same time leveraging the significant economies of scale available from its 50- and 68-seat fleets.
The popularity of the airline’s service between Auckland and Los Angeles will see the airline step up frequency next year from twice daily to three times a day on three days of the week, while also extending the duration of its peak season capacity increase to Vancouver.
The confirmation of the A380 deployment follows the recent approval from the New Zealand Minister of Transport to a proposed alliance between Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand which endorsed the earlier decision from the Competition Commission of Singapore.
Air New Zealand and All Nippon Airways will both introduce flights with the Boeing 787-9 early next month, with Etihad Airways, Scoot, United Airlines and Virgin Atlantic Airways also due to the fly the new stretched variant of the Dreamliner before the end of the year.
Air New Zealand has accelerated the purchase of a 15th domestic Airbus A320 to allow improvements to its Dunedin-Auckland schedule from March 2015 with the operation of an earlier direct return service between the two cities.
Jetstar Airways will close its Singapore – Auckland flight from July 21, 2014 because the service is not performing as the carrier would have liked and it believes its capacity could be better deployed on other routes.
