Air New Zealand will operate twice weekly direct flights between Auckland and Beijing from July this year, as well as three times weekly between Auckland and Shanghai. The airline is targeting not only Olympic Games traffic, but what it sees as growing cargo opportunities in that market.
Belly-hold freight in the Boeing 777- 200ER aircraft is complemented by Air NZ¡¯s B744 freighter which stages through Shanghai on its round-the-world route.
Air NZ currently operates five flights a week to Shanghai. While this will drop temporarily to accommodate the new Beijing service, but will return to five from November this year, giving the carrier seven B777 and one B744F flights in total.
The carrier also has substantial operations through Hong Kong.