Direct flights to New Zealand to be available in December

Filipinos may soon find themselves going to “Middle Earth” more often with regular nonstop flights between Auckland and Manila coming later this year.

 

FLYING IS FASTER. Starting December 2016, you can now fly to “Middle Earth” via Air New Zealand’s nonstop flights between Manila and Auckland. (Photo via Future Atlas)

 

Air New Zealand announced on Tuesday that they will be launching direct flights between Manila and Auckland three times a week by the end of 2016.

“With over 40,000 Filipinos in New Zealand, the traffic between both countries is growing quickly. In the last 12 months, it grew by 20% alone”, Stephen Jones, Chief Officer for Strategy, Networks and Alliance said.

“The Filipino community here travels a lot, and they also bring their friends and family. It’s a core part of the business here”, he added.

According to Chief Flight Operations and Safety Officer Capt. David Morgan, “Flight times between Manila and Auckland will take at least ten and a half hours depending on the weather.” This makes their flights at least two hours faster than the service offered by Philippine Airlines (PAL).

PAL started direct services between Manila and Auckland in December 2015, flying four times weekly. Currently, their 12-hour flights are the fastest between the two cities, with a one-hour stopover in Cairns, Australia.

Tickets for the Manila-Auckland route are expected to go on sale in the middle of 2016 pending government and regulatory approvals.

The Philippines is the second South East Asian country to get direct flights to and from Auckland. Air New Zealand earlier launched direct services to Vietnam which will begin in June this year.

 

Sources: NZ Herald, National Business Review, GMA News Online, Philippine Flight Network, Inquirer.net, stuff.co.nz, Herald Sun