Air New Zealand to increase business premier seats to Houston

Air New Zealand has decided to aggressively target the premium market by launching new Dreamliner service with increased business class seats on Auckland-Houston route later this year.Media reports said that New Zealand’s national carrier will be deploying a newly-configured Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft to conduct flights between Houston and Auckland with seven-time weekly service during the peak season. According to the reports, the increased premium travel demand will see Air New Zealand acquiring three new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircrafts, scheduled to be delivered starting from October this year.

The Dreamliners will have new cabin configuration. The business class cabins in the new aircrafts will now be able to accommodate more premium customers than before. A spokesperson of Air New Zealand said that the number of business premier seats will be increased to 27 from the existing 18 seats. Similarly, the number of seats in premium economy cabins will also be increased from 21 to 33. The airline is currently serving the 12,000 km long Auckland-Houston route with the help of a Boeing 777-200 aircraft. The duration of the flight is about 13 hours 50 minutes.

Apart from Houston, Air New Zealand is also planning to increase its frequencies to Argentina as well. The airline in a statement said that it is going to boost its flights to Buenos Aires from November 2017. With additional flights to the Argentine capital, the airline wants to meet the strong travel demand. The airline said that its flights services to Buenos Aires is going to be increased to five-times per week during the peak summer season. The airline is currently operating four-times per week flights to Buenos Aires. It may be noted that Air New Zealand first started serving Buenos Aires in December 2015 with thrice weekly services.