Air New Zealand has lift off from Sydney

Bags packed, boarding passes scanned and customers on board the very first bubble flight from Australia have taken off bound for New Zealand.
19 April 2020

NZ246 has departed Sydney with a full load of excited customers ready to reunite with friends and whānau. It's due to land in Te Whanganui-a-Tara (Wellington) at 1:00pm NZT.

This service is one of almost 500 flights the airline is operating across its international and domestic networks today.

Air New Zealand Short Haul Inflight Service Manager Craig Suckling says the feeling at Sydney airport this morning was electric.

 "It was quite the emotional rollercoaster here in Sydney. The check-in area was a hive of activity and at the boarding gate, customers were eager to get on. Put it this way, we certainly weren't calling customers for a final boarding call!"

 "For over 400 days, New Zealanders have needed to isolate on return to Aotearoa. Now, both Kiwis and Aussies can enter freely so this is an incredibly emotional day. Our flights into New Zealand from Australia are at 97% capacity today so you can picture what the airports look like!"

On arrival into Wellington customers will be feeling the Aotearoa aroha as they disembark to live music and welcome messages.

About Star Alliance

The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer worldwide reach, recognition and seamless service to the international traveller. Its acceptance by the market has been recognised by numerous awards, including the Air Transport World Market Leadership Award and Best Airline Alliance by both Business Traveller Magazine and Skytrax. The member airlines are: Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, THAI, Turkish Airlines, and United. Overall, the Star Alliance network currently offers more than 19,000 daily flights to more than 1,250 airports in 195 countries. Further connecting flights are offered by Star Alliance Connecting Partner, Juneyao Airlines.

For more information please visit Air New Zealand and Star Alliance and/or follow Star Alliance on Facebook, Twitter,  Youtube, LinkedIn or Instagram.

Star Alliance Press Office: Tel: +49 69 96375 183 or email: mediarelations@staralliance.com