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Air New Zealand says it is ending a seasonal Tokyo to Christchurch service in favour of extra frequencies on its Auckland-Tokyo route.
Previously, Air NZ in the summer months operated a triangular Auckland-Tokyo Narita-Christchurch-Auckland rotation three times a week on top of its existing Auckland-Tokyo Narita return service.
Those extra flights will not be operating this summer. Instead, Air NZ will boost its Auckland-Tokyo offering to 10 flights a week from December 2015 to March 2016, with the flights timed to connect onto domestic services to Christchurch.
Air NZ chief sales and commercial officer Cam Wallace said the move to end the Tokyo-Christchurch flight was made following market research in Japan with consumers and the travel trade, which found there was “no clear preference to fly into Christchurch”.
“In fact, since we moved to daily Tokyo-Auckland flights our experience is that customers are increasingly choosing to arrive in Auckland rather than Christchurch,” Wallace said in a statement.
From August, all Air NZ flights to Tokyo will be with the Dreamliner, compared with a mix of 787-9 and 767-300s currently.
Air NZ said the move to all-787-9 services also presented some operational challenges for the Tokyo-Christchurch service.
“Not only is it more expensive to fly the extra distance to Christchurch, the aircraft then has to be re-positioned to Auckland to continue operating its scheduled services,” Air NZ said.
“This flight has previously been operated as a domestic Christchurch-Auckland service, but as the 787-9 cannot operate to the Auckland domestic terminal this will no longer be possible meaning the aircraft would need to be repositioned empty adding to the overall cost of operating to Christchurch.”
Wallace acknowledged the decision was a disappointing one for Christchurch tourism stakeholders. However, he said the airline remained committed to supporting the Christchurch and the South Island tourism industry.
Mal
says:Air NZ is becoming known here as Air Auckland. Much like QF’s Sydney centric focus, Air NZ is Auckland centric. The airline uses South Island imagery widely in it’s promotion of the country but now gives passengers ex-Japan with no choice. Those tourists who come to the South Island stay longer and spend more. Dropping the route is not a step forward. All because AKL doesn’t have a domestic gate that can accommodate a 787-9! Pathetic. Wouldn’t it make more sense to get a gate capable of handling a 787-9 rather than bin a successful and established route?
Marc
says:@Mal
Your comments appear contradictory. The 787 flight is an international one. What’s the issue with the domestic gate?
Brian
says:Where is the incentive for AIAL to stump up the cash to build a gate at the domestic terminal suitable for a 787 when they have suitable gates at the international terminal and get the same aircraft frequency or greater at that terminal.
Brian
says:@Marc
The Christchurch to Auckland sector is operated as a domestic flight as indicated in the article.
Mal
says:@Marc
Good point. I’ll explain. To position a 787-9 in CHC, ANZ would fly a domestic sector (as per 767 currently) from AKL. However, given no domestic gate in AKL is capable of accommodating a 787-9 then to fly the sector suddenly becomes a non revenue generating sector thus damaging the economics of the sector. Hope this clarifies the comment earlier.
Tyron
says:Surely there are stairs in AKL capable of meeting The 787-9 … Why cant the flight deplane at a domestic stand off bay?
Baz
says:why cant they do the domestic portion out of the international terminal like they used to do. A bit like QF6 did with DFW/BNE/SYD.
Tyron
says:Christchurch has swing gates which means an in-bound Intl flight can then operate as an out-bound domestic flight (and vice versa) without the aircraft having to change bays. International pax arriving from Japan and going on to Auckland would be required to clear customs/immigration in CHC before reboarding from the domestic terminal. The problem is that apparently its impossible to deplane a 787-9 at AKL domestic via airbridge or stairs at the domestic terminal… Go figure…