It looks like Air New Zealand is hoping to once again resume flights to London, after completely discontinuing service to Europe in 2020. However, as of now there are more questions than answers, and this is far from a sure bet.
In this post:
Air New Zealand requests London airport slots
@IshrionA reports on how Air New Zealand has requested daily slots for London Heathrow Airport (LHR), but was denied. However, the airline was able to secure daily slots for London Gatwick Airport (LGW), for service that could start as early as July 2025.
Now, it’s worth emphasizing that just because these slots have been requested, doesn’t actually mean the service will launch. However, it suggests that the airline is at least seriously considering such a flight, as airlines aren’t in the business of requesting slots for airports they have no intention of flying to.
Like so many airlines, Air New Zealand has been dealing with a shortage of aircraft, as the carrier’s new Boeing 787s haven’t been delivered on-time. However, the airline is expected to finally get some new Dreamliners in 2025.
London is around 11,400 miles from Auckland (AKL), so this service couldn’t be operated nonstop. Instead it would need to be operated via an intermedia point. Up until 2020, Air New Zealand flew to London via Los Angeles (LAX), which was a fun fifth freedom flight. Going back even further than that, up until 2013, the airline operated to London via Hong Kong (HKG), which was also a fifth freedom flight.
Funny enough, Air New Zealand actually sold its Heathrow slots back in 2020, for $27 million. It remains to be seen via which airport Air New Zealand would operate such a service next. In recent years, the carrier’s focus has been on offering ultra long haul service to the United States, including flights between Auckland and New York.
Is there merit to Air New Zealand returning to London?
I kind of struggle to see why Air New Zealand would try flying to London on its own metal yet again, especially after previous failures. These kinds of markets where nonstop flights aren’t possible are just really tough competitively:
- There are a countless number of well regarded airlines offering one-stop service between New Zealand and the United Kingdom, from Cathay Pacific, to Emirates, to Qatar Airways, to Singapore Airlines, and many more
- While Air New Zealand could operate a fifth freedom service as part of that, it’s hard to command decent yields on those flights, given other carriers’ more dominant market positions, lack of frequencies, etc.
- Never mind that this doesn’t seem like the best allocation of resources, given that Air New Zealand has a perpetual aircraft shortage
Now, some might point out that Qantas can make London service work, so why can’t Air New Zealand? Qantas is in a totally different position:
- Qantas can fly nonstop from Australia to London, thanks to its Perth to London route; Air New Zealand couldn’t operate such a route
- Qantas otherwise serves London via Singapore, with the benefit being that the airline has service from a handful of cities in Australia that all feed onto that Singapore to London flight
- Qantas and Emirates also have a close partnership, which creates a compelling overall schedule between the UK and Australia
- Qantas will eventually fly nonstop from Sydney and Melbourne to London, thanks to its Project Sunrise A350-1000s; however, Air New Zealand couldn’t do something similar, as New Zealand is just a bit too far
Bottom line
Air New Zealand is seemingly considering a return to London, as the airline was rejected for slots at Heathrow, but approved for slots at Gatwick. We’ll see if this service actually ends up starting, but clearly the airline is considering this.
In the past, Air New Zealand has flown to London via Hong Kong and Los Angeles. It remains to be seen how the airline would try to make the service happen this time around. However, I’m skeptical as to how this could be profitable.
What do you make of the prospect of Air New Zealand returning to London?
Air NZ need to focus on installing their new business class product first. Nobody in their right mind is going to fly their old seat all the way to London when you have the option of some of the world's best business class products on other airlines.
The benefit for Air NZ on doing Auckland LAX London is that the Los Angeles London leg is not served by any good airlines, so they are in a better position to sell the 5th freedom leg. The challenge there can be that Gatters does not offer great connection onwards, so they'd probably need the Heathrow slots for it to work well.
"Any good airlines??"
This is true. I used to know loads of people who would go out of their way to choose NZ over BA/UA/AA especially in PE. I also seem to remember they had much better seat pitch in Y as well.
When they were using the PE Space seat concept 100% agree along with the Sky Couch in Y, since the former was ditched in favour of the zodiac seat it’s not worth so much effort.
Either a Canadian stopover or perhaps air new Zealand is going to compete on the Perth to London route given how successful it's been for Qantas
My money is on LAX-LON. NZ served the route for over 40 years and had a meaningful base of loyal leisure travelers that would choose them again. Still might be a bit of a vanity project, though.
I think it’s more likely going to be a Canadian stopover, the LAX option was messy and not very popular with transit passengers.
It’s much better now. If you fly in Air France to Tahiti from Paris or vice versa, bags are checked through and you have a passport check in the midfield concourse/west gates.
Vancouver would be the only logical option then and fellow Star Alliance carrier AC already operate YVR-LHR
Air New Zealand basically got two sets of slots for free from Heathrow in the 1990s and 2000s respectively, which they turned around and liquidated for pure cash gains in 2013 and 2020. To then expect that they should be allocated more pool slots for free is chutzpah of the highest order.
With aircraft shortages, seems like resuming AKL-ORD should come first...
Historically they also flew via ppt/hnl-dfw-lgw, akl-nrt-lgw and akl-HNL-yvr-lgw
But that was a long time ago
Auckland- London Via Perth might work
If Qantas had any clue they'd already be doing that, but they don't even operate a Perth-Auckland nonstop anymore.
Auckland-London via Newark/JFK. That’ll be fun
NYLON is pretty oversaturated and they would need to get access to additional slots at both JFK and LHR.
Could HNL work? HNL-LON is a route people have wanted for a long time.
You would be backtracking...flying to HNL you would be heading northeast. Then flying to London? Doesn't make sense for kiwis.
AKL-HNL-LON is only 199 miles further than AKL-LON nonstop.
I wish!… that would be an awesome route and great to have a direct flight from Europe to HNL. It does seem a logical route (in a sense) as it is almost a straight line and 300 miles less than via LAX.