AirNZ, United deepen ties with new revenue share

AirNZ, United deepen ties with new revenue share
By Daisy Melwani


Air New Zealand and United Airlines have entered into a revenue sharing agreement to promote and sell both airlines’ services between New Zealand and USA.

The joint venture will come into effect when United launches its new San Francisco – Auckland service on 1 July. Air New Zealand currently codeshares with United on its extensive network in domestic USA and to international destinations including Australia and London. Likewise, United codeshares on Air New Zealand’s network in domestic New Zealand, Australia, the Pacific Islands and to the USA.

“The United States is New Zealand’s third largest tourism source market, contributing almost a billion dollars to our economy in the past financial year,” Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon said.

“We know this is just the tip of the iceberg though, with around 30 million Americans actively considering New Zealand as a holiday destination.”

“To have a strong home market carrier like United Airlines working with us to grow this market through its extensive sales and distribution channels in the U.S. will provide a significant boost to inbound tourism.”

United Airlines Vice Chairman and Chief Revenue Officer Jim Compton says United said the agreement would offer “customers more seamless connections between New Zealand and cities across the U.S. than any of our competitors.”

Air New Zealand currently operates direct to five North American ports with daily services from Auckland to San Francisco, double daily services to Los Angeles, four services per week to Vancouver and Honolulu, and five services per week from Auckland to Houston, increasing to daily flights during the December/January peak period.

Subject to United Airlines obtaining government approval, it will begin operating a three-times-weekly 787-8 Dreamliner service between San Francisco and Auckland in July, moving to daily services operated by a larger 787-9 aircraft in November 2016.

Once United begins operating its Auckland-San Francisco flights the airlines will operate complementary services on the route, with United’s flights arriving into San Francisco in the early morning and Air New Zealand’s flights arriving around midday.

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

    Latest comments

    1. You have to wonder how pathetic the regulatory bodies are to continue to allow this sort of collusion. It’s to the detriment of smaller carriers and ultimately the traveling public. And UA and NZ are hardly quality carriers to begin with. This move just helps them be average together.

air new zealand codeshare united airlines

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