Air New Zealand will have a new twice weekly direct Auckland-Beijing service. Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe and said the direct service would operate from July 18.

The service, subject to all necessary Chinese regulatory and operating approvals, would operate out of Auckland on Wednesday and Friday and out of Beijing on Thursday and Saturday using the airline’s new Boeing 777-200ER aircraft.

Rob Fyfe said the new service would build on the success of the airline’s Auckland-Shanghai service which was launched in November 2006.

He said, ‘Chinese visitor numbers to New Zealand continue to boom, increasing approximately 14% year-on-year, and its rapidly developing economy offers significant potential for both Air New Zealand and the broader New Zealand tourism industry.’

To provide sufficient capacity for the Beijing flights, the airline will cut its Auckland Shanghai service to three times a week until November 2008.

Rob Fyfe said from November next year the airline planned to operate five services a week to Shanghai, plus the two Beijing flights.

Group general manager international airline Ed Sims said, ‘Our direct Shanghai service was primarily aimed to serve its 17 million citizens. By offering a direct service to Beijing, we expect to gain a greater number of customers looking to travel to New Zealand from other parts of China, and from Europe. It will also provide Kiwis with an easy and convenient way to travel deeper into China.’
Source: Stuff

Air China and Air New Zealand now offer code-share service connecting China, Australia, and New Zealand. Air New Zealand has become the twentieth airline to partner with Air China in cooperative code-share service.

Mrs. Zhang Lan, Senior Vice President for Air China, said, ‘Partnering with a strong, Star Alliance carrier like Air New Zealand is a great benefit for travelers to and from China. We are proud to join with Air New Zealand in expanding passengers’ choices to fly to more destinations, and we believe that Air New Zealand customers will be pleased with the levels of service they will receive onboard our modern Air China fleet.’

Air China will code-share on Air New Zealand flights between Shanghai and Auckland, as well as on some flights between Australia and New Zealand. In return, Air New Zealand will code-share on Air China’s international services between China and Australia, which connect the four major cities of the two countries, namely Beijing and Shanghai with Sydney and Melbourne.
Source: etravel blackboard

China and New Zealand have agreed to amend their air services agreement so that their airlines can establish commercial code-share arrangements.

Annette King, New Zealand’s Minister of Transport, made the announcement after meeting with Yang Yuanyuan, Minister of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China. She said, ‘Yang and I agreed that China and New Zealand will implement from this month a change to our 1993 air services agreement to facilitate code share arrangements.’

According to official statistics, New Zealand received 114,000 visitors from China in the year to March, a 26% growth year-on-year.

ir New Zealand launched direct Auckland-Shanghai services in November 2006, a ‘milestone’ for the airline and for direct travel between New Zealand and China.

Air New Zealand plans to increase its Auckland-Shanghai services from three to five. Which is excellent news. However, shared codes are not without their problems. A simple example: when the idea of code sharing first started Qantas, the Australian airline, made deals with several other airlines. The result was chaos at the airports.

A traveler would buy a Qantas ticket, check in at a Qantas counter and find that the aircraft ready for boarding was from some other airline. At which point the passenger refused to fly.

Nowadays it is very, very carefully explained to all passengers right from the very first contact that this is a code-share flight and all though it might say Qantas it may very well be Finnair. Not that anyone has anything against Finnair. It is just that most Australians do not see raw herring and vodka as a satisfactory inflight meal. (I lie, I lie. The food on Finnair is, in fact, quite excellent.) Still, a flight from Sydney to Bangkok is often code-shared between Finnair, Air Malta, British Airways and Qantas. And this could give a passenger pause.

Code-sharing can bring benefits but it has to be handled very, very carefully.
Source: China View