Air New Zealand is dropping its twice-weekly direct flights to Beijing from June 30 in favour increased services to Shanghai, following a review of its current China schedules.
Flights from Auckland to Shanghai will increase from four to five times weekly from July 4, with Air New Zealand planning to operate daily flights to the Chinese commercial centre with the next year. Beijing, meanwhile, will be served via a codeshare with Air China between Shanghai and Beijing.
“Air New Zealand has been operating to mainland China for more than five years and is highly committed to the potential of the market long term. We’ve just appointed the first ever head of our Asia operations, Sandeep Bahl, who is a highly experienced airline executive in the region. Sandeep took up his new role in our Shanghai office at the beginning of the month,” Air New Zealand’s group general manager international airline, Christopher Luxon, said.
“Under his guidance we will focus our marketing and sales resources on the Shanghai region of around 14 million people as we seek to provide customers a daily service to and from this important gateway in China.”
