Air New Zealand is set to lauch its longest direct route ever, with Auckland (NZAA) - Chicago (KORD) November 30, 2018 3:55 AM departing Auckland at 4:55pm Local time, and arriving 15 hours later in Chicago. This comes as welcome news for Air New Zealand, as it sets ANZ in the ULR Flying Caitgory, and this route will be O’Hares longest route.
The estimated 15 hour route will be around 8000 (13,183kms) miles from AKL - ORD. And 8,184 miles (13,170.87 kms) long. On the way back, the return flight is schedualed to take 16hrs:20mins. Making it one of the longest flights. And the longest out of O’Hare International with second place going to United’s and Cathaty Pacific Airways 16 hour long flight to Hong Kong. Image Credit
Chief flight operations and safety officer David Morgan said 'Chicago poses challenges in winter with snow and ice, and in summer, thunderstorms and intense heat can be disruptive.
This comes as New Zealand and the rest of the Southern Hemispere enter Summer, and with weather getting colder, they are slightly concerned that the flight might be delayed. Another issue that ANZ was facing is the issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent engines, ANZ was determined to avoid having engine problems, so they are retrofittting any aircraft with Trent Engines, and replacing them with Trent TEN Engines, which ‘haven’t caused airlines problems and are not subject to the extra checks and range restrictions imposed on “Package C” engines’
And this route is also a deal for Air New Zealand, so they can recover from its Dreamliner Engine mishaps and ‘taking it deep into the heart of the lucrative United States market’
This flight is Air New Zealand longest flight, with the airline getting a real test of its crew Capiblity. With flight crews training in Flight Simulators running ‘Test Flights’, and flying for 16 hours in all types of weather. Including the Privaling winds heading Southbound towards Auckland again. The flight will operate 3 times weekly, and will use the callsign NZ26
If this is a dup, or belongs in another topic, feel free to say so. I just felt this should be its own topic
3 times a week. So they are actually using 1 plane on that route. I’m still “dreaming” of the even longer route between Frankfurt and Auckland. It would be 20 hours.
They are using one type of aircraft. I would hope that they are using more than one aircraft. For the sole fact if one aircraft is late or has an issue. They have a standby
@Connor Imagine if they started service to New York City. It would definitely bring more people to New Zealand. (Would be one long arse flight, but it would be neat!)
Looks very nice 😎
I wonder what aircraft they’ll put on the route when (not if) their trash liners start having engine problems, as it is a very long route.
Nah they would just lower frequency. The issue would have to be very very bad for all to be grounded. All other 787 routes can be done by other aircraft so they would be replaced first.
Issue is all under control operations are pretty normal just reduced frequency on 1 or 2 routes and the Singapore airways 777-200ER and Eva Air 777-300ER have done well to support reduced 787 numbers. Not to forgot the new 787 that have arrived since the issue started.
