Air New Zealand opens up more cargo flights to China over peak Lunar New Year period

February 4, 2021
Auckland Airport (IATA: AKL, ICAO: NZAA) is the largest and busiest airport in New Zealand, with 16,487,648 (9,005,612 international and 7,482,036 domestic) passengers in the year ended December 2015. The airport is located near Mangere, a residential suburb and Airport Oaks, a service hub suburb 21 kilometres (13 mi) south of Auckland city centre. It is both a domestic and international hub for Air New Zealand and as the New Zealand hubs of Virgin Australia and Jetstar Airways.  Air New Zealand originated in 1940 as Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL), a company operating trans-Tasman flights between New Zealand and Australia. TEAL became wholly owned by the New Zealand government in 1965, whereupon it was renamed Air New Zealand. The airline served international routes until 1978, when the government merged it and the domestic New Zealand National Airways Corporation (NAC) into a single airline under the Air New Zealand name. Air New Zealand was privatised in 1989, but returned to majority government ownership in 2001 after near bankruptcy due to the failed tie up with Australian carrier Ansett Australia. In the 2015 financial year to June, Air New Zealand carried 14.29 million passengers.

Air New Zealand is operating three new return cargo services to Guangzhou in China this week as Chinese New Year celebrations peak.

The service will support the export and import of premium goods over the Chinese New Year season. 

The first cargo flight took off yesterday. From next week, the airline will operate two multi-stop services a week to pick up goods in Auckland and Christchurch to be transported to Guangzhou.

“Our teams in New Zealand have been working tirelessly to get these flights operational and we couldn’t be more pleased to be offering a cargo service to Guangzhou for the first time," Air New Zealand general manager cargo Anna Palairet 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.”

Flights to Guangzhou will carry local premium export goods including seafood and milk powder, and flights to New Zealand will carry PPE, electronics and other general cargo.

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