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UPDATE: The rumour turned out to be true – full details on the American Airlines route to Auckland here.
It’s a day of American Airlines news today!
Just a few days ago United Airlines announced that they would be commencing service between San Francisco and Auckland and, hot on the heels of that news, there is a very strong rumor that American Airlines is about to follow suit.
JonNYC, over at the TravelingBetter forum, is usually an extremely good source of information when it comes to all things American Airlines – and this news comes from him.
American is expected to announce, very shortly, that they will begin to fly between Los Angeles and Auckland (presumably next year).
Should this strong rumor come to fruition it will be great news for American Airlines and OneWorld flyers who haven’t had a non-stop option between New Zealand and the West Coast since Qantas surrendered their routes in 2012.
JonNYC has also mentioned that a Dallas – Auckland route is also a possibility (instead of the LAX route) but, I’d suggest, that that’s the less likely of the two options. American is already on record as having said that trans-Pacific expansion will come from Los Angeles and when you combine that with the likelihood that there will be a lot more people wanting to travel to/from Los Angeles than there will be people waiting to travel to/from Dallas, Los Angeles seems to make the most sense.
The most likely aircraft that American Airlines will use on the route will be one of their new Boeing 787 Dreamliners. It has the range for the flight, it’s not too big (so not that hard to fill) and it’s as efficient as long-haul aircraft come so it’s the obvious choice if American go ahead with the route.
I haven’t had the chance to try out one of these aircraft yet but, from what I’ve heard, the Business Class cabin is ok (but not as good as the cabins in the 777s) and the Economy Cabin is a bit of a squeeze.
Gary Leff, over at the View From the Wing blog, did a good piece on the economy cabin in the 787-9 so, if you’re thinking of flying one one of these aircraft, you should have a read of that first.
Anyway, that’s moving away from the main topic at hand.
If American does indeed announce a route to Auckland, it will mean that OneWorld flyers will soon have options to Sydney (American from LAX starting Dec 2015) and options to Auckland that just a few months ago didn’t even appear to be on the cards.
American Airlines has always looked weak across the Pacific when compared to it’s two closest US competitors (Delta and United) and, while this may only be a small step in rectifying that imbalance, it will be a very good step to see them taking.
Featured image – Harrison Gulliver via Flickr
