SkyTeam member China Eastern is launching a new fifth freedom flight, which is part of the world’s new longest “direct” flight. This is quite a journey…
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China Eastern adds Auckland to Buenos Aires route
As of December 4, 2025, China Eastern will launch 2x weekly flights from Shanghai (PVG) to Auckland (AKL) to Buenos Aires (EZE), representing the carrier’s first route to South America. The flight will operate with the following schedule:
MU745 Shanghai to Auckland departing 2:00AM arriving 6:30PM
MU745 Auckland to Buenos Aires departing 8:55PM arriving 4:55PM
MU746 Buenos Aires to Auckland departing 2:00AM arriving 8:40AM (+1 day)
MU746 Auckland to Shanghai departing 10:40AM arriving 6:00PM (+1 day)
The eastbound journey will operate on Mondays and Thursdays and is blocked at just under 26 hours, while the westbound journey will operate on Tuesdays and Fridays, and is blocked at a staggering 29 hours. When you combine the length of the flight with the 2AM departure (meaning most passengers likely won’t have gotten any sleep the prior night), this has to be one of the most exhausting long haul routes imaginable.
In total, this route will cover a distance of 12,229 miles, with the Shanghai to Auckland sector covering 5,808 miles, and the Auckland to Buenos Aires sector covering 6,421 miles. The flight between New Zealand and Argentina will be a fifth freedom flight, meaning that it’ll be possible for passengers to exclusively travel between those two countries on China Eastern.
China Eastern will use a Boeing 777-300ER for the route, with 316 seats. This includes six first class seats, 52 business class seats, and 258 economy seats.
This is an interesting route on a couple of levels:
- This is the world’s longest “direct” flight (in airline terms, “direct” and “nonstop” are not the same)
- This is among the world’s most southerly long haul routes, and it’ll be flying mighty close to Antarctica; other very southerly routes include Qantas’ Sydney (SYD) to Johannesburg (JNB) and Santiago (SCL) flights, as well as LATAM’s Santiago (SCL) to Auckland (AKL) and Melbourne (MEL) flights
The announcement of this route was initially made in June 2025, during a ceremony in Shanghai, where New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was in attendance. Here’s what Luxon had to say about the new route:
“As a country we are working hard to grow tourism back to 2019 levels and beyond, because doing so will drive economic growth right across the country. This new route is estimated to bring an additional $48 million in annual visitor spend to New Zealand.”
Meanwhile here’s what Auckland Airport CEO Carrie Hurihanganui had to say:
“While we have rebuilt our aviation connections with China, visitation is still recovering. Additional flights from Shanghai Pudong, a major globally connected hub, supports more travellers not just direct from China but also those connecting via Shanghai from across Asia and Europe into Auckland.”
“This new service will reintroduce a direct flight connection between New Zealand and Argentina, enhancing not only tourism, trade and international education, but providing another link home for the 40,000 South Americans who live in New Zealand.”
How this fits into the competitive landscape
This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen service between Auckland and Buenos Aires. Air New Zealand operated this route from 2015 until 2020, though the service was cut at the start of the pandemic. Prior to that, Aerolineas Argentinas operated this route until 2012.
Obviously given China’s distance from South America, operating nonstop flights isn’t practical. China Eastern won’t be the only Chinese carrier to fly to South America. For example, Air China flies from Beijing (PEK) to Madrid (MAD) to Sao Paulo (GRU), but as you can tell, that route goes “the other way.”
Obviously Air New Zealand would have a significant advantage in this market, given connecting traffic in Auckland. However, Air New Zealand also has more opportunity cost with operating such a route.
Airlines from mainland China have kind of struggled post pandemic with international recovery. So I imagine this route is motivated by political factors, plus also serving a fifth freedom market that probably has a decent amount of demand, especially for filling just two flights per week.
Bottom line
As of December 2025, China Eastern is launching 2x weekly flights from Shanghai to Buenos Aires via Auckland, with that second sector being a fifth freedom service. This is a mighty long journey, and the world’s longest “direct” flight. This is one of two routes between New Zealand and South America, with the other being on LATAM.
What do you make of China Eastern’s new Buenos Aires flight?
What's going to happen to MU's AKL to SYD fifth freedom route then?
This is about as “direct” as United’s new flights from the US to Bangkok
This is only 700 miles longer than SQ's SIN-MAN-IAH route (no longer in service), but nice to have another connection between AUS/NZL and S. America.
My understanding why there isn’t a direct “non stop” flight from Asia fo South America is due to environmental risk/protections of rubber crops in Asia. Will be curious how the flights logistics will operate.
From the internet:
“There are no non-direct flights between Asia and South America because the risk of South American Leaf Blight (SALB), a destructive fungal disease that infects rubber trees, spreading to Asia is too high. Instead, flights between these...
My understanding why there isn’t a direct “non stop” flight from Asia fo South America is due to environmental risk/protections of rubber crops in Asia. Will be curious how the flights logistics will operate.
From the internet:
“There are no non-direct flights between Asia and South America because the risk of South American Leaf Blight (SALB), a destructive fungal disease that infects rubber trees, spreading to Asia is too high. Instead, flights between these regions are indirect and carefully controlled, with stringent phytosanitary measures in place, including air tunnels to dislodge SALB spores from passengers and X-rays for baggage to prevent the fungus from migrating to major rubber-producing Asian countries. “
Speaking of unpleasant flights, @Ben not sure if you've seen what surely must be the most unpleasant long haul flight operated by a short haul plane
Buenos Aires - Aruba just announced by Aerolineas Argentinas on a 737 MAX 8. No Wifi or power or entertainment. 8 hours going, 10 hours on the return (with a stop in Cordoba).
I've flown these a fair bit on domestic flights within Argentina, and the premium section...
Speaking of unpleasant flights, @Ben not sure if you've seen what surely must be the most unpleasant long haul flight operated by a short haul plane
Buenos Aires - Aruba just announced by Aerolineas Argentinas on a 737 MAX 8. No Wifi or power or entertainment. 8 hours going, 10 hours on the return (with a stop in Cordoba).
I've flown these a fair bit on domestic flights within Argentina, and the premium section (they call it Premium Economy), is totally fine for a couple of hours. But boy 10 hours on one of these would be rough
link :
https://www.google.com/travel/flights/booking?tfs=CBwQAhpAEgoyMDI2LTAxLTExIiAKA0VaRRIKMjAyNi0wMS0xMRoDQVVBKgJBUjIEMTM3NGoHCAESA0VaRXIHCAESA0FVQUABSAJwAYIBCwj___________8BmAEC&tfu=CmxDalJJUzFGa1VsWmxRWGw1U1dkQlRGUTRPVUZDUnkwdExTMHRMUzB0TFMxMmQzSmpNa0ZCUVVGQlIycEpRMjlGVFU5ZlRrMUJFZ1pCVWpFek56UWFDd2l2bGcwUUFob0RWVk5FT0J4d3I1WU4SAggAIgMKATA
I just flew Air China from Gru-Mad last week. I was surprised on my flight there may have been a mac of only a dozen or so Chinese. The rest were South Americans. I do imagine they will pick up a lot of local traffic and this will be a good value compared to their competitors. I think my Air China flight was 25%+ cheaper than Iberia or Latam.
I miss all the capacity...
I just flew Air China from Gru-Mad last week. I was surprised on my flight there may have been a mac of only a dozen or so Chinese. The rest were South Americans. I do imagine they will pick up a lot of local traffic and this will be a good value compared to their competitors. I think my Air China flight was 25%+ cheaper than Iberia or Latam.
I miss all the capacity chinese carriers flooding the US market with pre pandemic it made costs on competitors for premium lines like Jal, Eva, CX cheaper, similar to the “southwest effect” or when Spirit enters a market (RIP). This probably also helped award travel a but as well creating more space.
Yes because your one flight is totally representative of all the hundreds of other flights a year.
So every other flight must be identical to yours and only have locals.
Some mistakes in the article.
First the schedule for the return is not correct for AKL-PVG segment, AKL-PVG does not across international dateline, therefore that flight should arrive on the same day from AKL.
Second, 2AM departure for a long haul flight for this distance is not materially different from departure on 11PM passenger would sleep for the most of the time on the plane given the departure time and flight time for each segment.
Dang. This must be some of the longest trip for the working crew on any regularly scheduled commercial flight. Looks like it’s about a 13-14 day trip total.
They surely have double Crew or change Crew in AKL.
"They surely have double Crew or change Crew in AKL."
Yes, they do. However what JD is including is the time on the ground since the flight is only 2x/week, so the crew will work, say, PVG-AKL, then spend a certain number of days in AKL, then work AKL-EZE, where they will presumably have a layover, then several days later fly EZE-AKL, layover for a few days, and finally work the AKL-PVG route. That would...
"They surely have double Crew or change Crew in AKL."
Yes, they do. However what JD is including is the time on the ground since the flight is only 2x/week, so the crew will work, say, PVG-AKL, then spend a certain number of days in AKL, then work AKL-EZE, where they will presumably have a layover, then several days later fly EZE-AKL, layover for a few days, and finally work the AKL-PVG route. That would equal one very long trip away from home, unless the airline expects crews to work AKL-EZE-AKL with no rest/layover.