ANZ & YVR celebrate 10 years

Members of the Vancouver travel trade, tour operators and airline suppliers gathered at the Bill Reid Gallery in Vancouver last night to celebrate 10 years of Air New Zealand service between Auckland and Vancouver.

“Canada is integral to our business,” said Liz Fraser, Air New Zealand’s regional general manager, Americas. “There’s about 66,000 Canadians that travel to New Zealand in a year, it’s grown about 19 per cent year on year, which is phenomenal.”

“We’re here because of a lot of hard work,” noted Craig Richmond, CEO of YVR, in his address. “For the last decade we’ve had the pleasure of working with Air New Zealand and moving people across the Pacific. We’re really happy to hear about the increase in visitors to New Zealand, but [also] of New Zealanders coming to BC. In 2017, Air New Zealand’s operations will generate about $14 million in economic output, and 71 jobs in BC so not only are you connecting people, you are actually helping the economy of this province.”

Increased Capacity

Air New Zealand is expanding its Vancouver-Auckland operation by almost 20 per cent as of January 2018, adding about 15,600 new seats to the route.

Frequency of services will move from seven to eight flights per week in the January peak season; from five flights per week to daily during February; increase to five flights a week in March and April, up from four, and to four weekly flights May through mid-June, up from three.

The Australia Connection

Air New Zealand offers connections to eight cities in Australia through its Auckland hub.

“Auckland airport is really easy,” noted Fraser. “You don’t have to change terminals, you don’t have to go through customs and immigration and your bags get checked all the way through. It’s the easiest transfer onto another plane that you can get.”

The airline is currently running a dual campaign offering both countries for one price.

Dreamliners On The Way

“We’ve got a really large fleet of Dreamliners coming,” said Fraser. “We’ve increased the size of the Business and Premium Economy cabins and decreased the size of the Economy cabin because we are seeing more demand for the front end of the plane.”

Award-winning Service

Air New Zealand has once again been named Top Airline in the World by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler, in its 30th annual Readers’ Choice Awards. Readers cited the carrier’s close attention to seat comfort; praised the Economy Skycouch product and commended the airline for serving award-winning New Zealand wine.