Wow! Qantas is re-starting flights to New York, this time via New Zealand

Australia’s Qantas has served New York on and off many times over the years. In fact, they were the third airline to fly jet aircraft across the Atlantic back in 1959, with flights to New York from San Francisco and London.

Before the pandemic, services operated from Los Angeles to New York, collecting passengers from cities in eastern Australia who wanted to continue onwards. You could only fly the sector as part of an onward international ticket, and not on its own, sadly.

New Flights To New York

Qantas has rights to fly from New Zealand to the United States and in the past used to fly between Auckland and Los Angeles. Someone has remembered this permission exists and is using it in a different way.

From June 2023, the oneworld alliance carrier will commence services between Sydney and New York via Auckland thrice weekly. These flights will use the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, with the sector between New Zealand and the USA taking 16 hours.

Qantas are operating on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday with QF3 leaving Sydney at 10:05am and arriving in New York 21 hours and 10 minutes later at 5:15pm the same day. QF4 returns the same days, leaving JFK at 7:30pm and arriving in Sydney a 8:05am two days later after 22 hours and 35 minutes travel time. This means Auckland to New York will be available every day by one of the two airlines except Tuesday.

Overall Thoughts

The Qantas press release also mentions the current First Class lounge and separate Business Class lounge in Auckland will be upgraded to a single international lounge. This is long overdue and the extra space will be appreciated as the facility can be very crowded at times.

Kiwis should be happy to have flights to New York six days per week and Aussies should be happy not to have to transit Los Angeles. That is far from a fun experience, whereas doing so in Auckland is a total pleasure by comparison. According to Qantas, they expect the service to New York via Auckland will remain in place when the non-stop flights from Sydney and Melbourne commence from around 2025.

What do you think of these new Qantas flights to New York? Will you go this way or do you prefer connecting in LA? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Mertie via Wikimedia Commons.