Why Is Air New Zealand Flying Boeing 787s Widebody Aircrafts To Guangzhou?

Air New Zealand has begun a twice-weekly freight carrier between Auckland and Guangzhou in southern China. The flights will function the usage of Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. Time-sensitive and perishable freight, in addition to typical freight, will get loaded at each Auckland and Christchurch earlier than the airplane heads up to China. 

Air New Zealand has begun a twice-weekly freight carrier between Auckland and Guangzhou in southern China. The flights will function the usage of Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners. Time-sensitive and perishable freight, in addition to regular freight, will get loaded at Auckland and Christchurch earlier than the aircraft heads up to China.

After selecting up freight in Christchurch on Wednesday, February 3, the inaugural flight, NZ1082, left Auckland late that afternoon. The 9,800-kilometer flight north to Guangzhou took simply over eleven hours to complete. A six and a half-year-old Boeing 787-9, ZK-NZE, operated the service

Air New Zealand General Manager of Cargo, Anna Palaire said :

“We’re really excited to be able to connect New Zealand businesses to Guangzhou and vice versa. We know it hasn’t been easy for exporters and importers, so it’s great to be able to offer more connectivity,”

“By offering a stop in Christchurch, this will help more businesses get their cargo to China and ensure our partners in Guangzhou get the freshest, high-quality products New Zealand has to offer.”

Over the busy Chinese New Year season, Air New Zealand despatched three Dreamliner offerings up to Guangzhou. Thereafter, flights dropped again to twice weekly. It’s a doubtlessly beneficial route. A two-way alternate between China and New Zealand is well worth US$23 billion a year, making China New Zealand’s biggest buying and selling partner.

Before Christmas, New Zealand’s Government prolonged the International Airfreight Capacity (IAFC) scheme till March 2021 to maintain vital freight and exports flowing. This scheme helps underwrite freight flights.

NZ Transport Minister, Michael Wood said,

“The scheme has helped airfreight return to 90% of pre-COVID levels. This means we can keep getting time-critical freight like medicines into New Zealand and enable our exporters to get their goods to international markets,”

“Normally airlines rely on a mix of passenger and air freight revenue to make international flights viable. Unfortunately, the pandemic has almost completely eliminated revenue from international passenger services."

“That’s why we have agreed to provide targeted funding for international airfreight flights to make sure they can run."

“New agreements have been reached with Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines and Malaysia Airlines to deliver airfreight capacity to key international markets.”

The IAFC scheme noticed  Air New Zealand lay on more freight capacity, inclusive of the use of passenger planes like the Dreamliners for freight solely services. Over the northern 2020/21 winter, Air New Zealand has flown some 2.5 million kilograms of cherries into Asia. Around one million kilograms of lamb has long passed to the United Kingdom. Blueberries are famous in Australia, with 600,000 kilograms heading there on Air New Zealand planes.

However, ramping up exports to China is certainly on New Zealand’s radar. Just weeks ago, the New Zealand Government upgraded their bilateral free alternate settlement with China. Connected or not, in a count of days, Air New Zealand commenced their Guangzhou freight flights.

The Air New Zealand Guangzhou carrier is additionally a win for Christchurch Airport. That airport is regularly overshadowed by way of the better Auckland Airport on the North Island. But a lot of export produce comes out of the South Island. Over the northern winter, Christchurch Airport noticed round 30 freight flights a week. These flights had been variously operated by way of Emirates, Air New Zealand, China Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, and Cathay Pacific.

Flight monitoring information has the subsequent provider to Guangzhou departing on Saturday. This time, ZK-NZK will make the lengthy trek north.