Starting December 1, Delta Air Lines is relaunching its daily services to Lagos, Nigeria, from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
23.04.2024 - 07:41 / skift.com / Delta Air Lines / United Airlines / Gordon Smith
Major U.S. airlines are bringing “unprecedented competition” to the transpacific market. The comments from Air New Zealand come as the Kiwi flag carrier lowered its earnings guidance for the current financial year.
The company published its 2024 interim results on Monday. It said that a deterioration in the economic and operational environment is expected to have a “significant adverse impact” on its performance during the second half of its fiscal year.
While the Auckland-based airline is facing headwinds on multiple fronts, it highlighted the aggressive expansion of U.S. carriers as a particular source of pain.
Amid the post-pandemic travel boom, all of the major international U.S. carriers now have New Zealand on their route network.
Analysis of Cirium Diio data shows American, Delta, and United have daily departures from their West Coast hubs to Auckland. In the peak season, United even offers a nonstop three-times weekly flight from San Francisco to Christchurch on New Zealand’s South Island.
The big three American carriers are due to offer 35 flights a week between the continental United States and New Zealand during the coming peak season. During the same period in 2019, the figure was just 14.
Combined with long-standing competition from Australia’s Qantas – which uses Auckland as a refueling stop for some of its longer U.S. flights – the battle for transpacific travelers has never been greater. While good news for passengers, when supply is surplus to requirements, airfares often come under pressure.
U.S. operators have also been ramping up their presence in Australia. In February, American Airlines announced a new 7,200+ mile service from Dallas Fort Worth to Brisbane. It is due to be the longest nonstop flight in the company’s worldwide network when it launches in October.
Delta is due to add a seasonal service from Los Angeles to Brisbane later this year, complementing existing links to Sydney.
On Monday, Air New Zealand also said it is facing challenges closer to home. It reported soft demand for corporate and government domestic travel and said it would reduce capacity in the coming quarter to “better reflect [the] current demand profile and improve operational resilience.”
While domestic leisure and international connecting traffic is still “holding up,” the company warned that these segments were sensitive to price changes.
Despite striking a cautious note on pricing, Air New Zealand confirmed that a “domestic fare review” is underway. It said the exercise would better match profitability with inflationary costs.
Elsewhere, traffic across the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and Australia remained solid, however, a reduction in profit margins on the routes was a factor.
It wasn’t
Starting December 1, Delta Air Lines is relaunching its daily services to Lagos, Nigeria, from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
The future of Australia’s newest low-cost airline is in the balance. On Tuesday, Bonza suddenly canceled its entire flying program and entered voluntary administration, a form of protection from creditors.
Chinese efforts to break the Airbus and Boeing duopoly took another step forward on Monday as one of the nation’s largest airlines agreed a major order.
A United Airlines passenger has been ordered to pay the carrier more than $20,000 after forcing a flight to divert.
American Airlines said Friday it would reduce some of its international routes during the second half of the year and early into 2025 because of ongoing Boeing 787 Dreamliner delays.
Long before Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy put New Zealand on everyone’s travel list, hunters and anglers long coveted the island nation’s riches of fish and game. It is a sportsman’s Jurassic Park, where beasts grow to near-mythic dimensions and the stunning landscape inspired the fictitious land of Middle-earth.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, April 23. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Delta announced Monday that it plans to give its employees 5% raises and increase the minimum starting wage for frontline employees to $19 an hour.
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