“We think this route will be very popular with Australians given the opportunity to connect via Auckland and it also gives New Zealanders more choice,” said Mr Joyce.
Beginning June 14 next year, Qantas will launch their new flight service that will see Aussies easily connected with New York three times a week.
The announcement comes as Qantas is set to receive three new Boeing 787 Dreamliners that will see a short stop over in Auckland before a 16-hour direct flight to New York.
With this new route, Qantas will up its Auckland services to 11 times a day from Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the new Dreamliners will be perfect for the long-haul flights.
“Customer feedback on our direct London and Rome services show how well suited our Dreamliner cabins are to longer international flights like these, which is helped by the fact we designed them with more room and fewer seats than most of our competitors,” he said.
Two Points Planes will operate during the first week of the new service with all seats across all classes available as a Classic Reward flight says Qantas.
As part of the announcement, Qantas has detailed that several lounges will be built and upgraded across Australia and New Zealand.
Auckland and Port Headland will see their lounge spaces completely renovated.
Qantas says that upgrades in Port Headland are needed to keep up with the growing FIFO market while Auckland will need a “modern pre-flight oasis” to ensure that when the new services are introduced, travellers will have the ultimate comforts available.
Rockhampton will see a new lounge built by the end of the year and will be double the capacity of what the current one is, allowing enough space for 60 guests, while Adelaide Domestic Airport will see a Business Lounge that can cater up to 190 people.
More initiatives are underway at Qantas including “The Longreach Centre” which is a new training facility in Sydney that can educate up to 200 crew members a day across Economy, Business and First classes.
The Sydney-Auckland-New York flight route goes on sale today.
