Air NZ touches down in San Francisco

By IRENE CHAPPLE

SAN FRANCISCO - Air New Zealand broke its nine-year drought on inaugural routes yesterday when its Lord of the Rings promo plane coasted onto the San Francisco tarmac and released 50 jetlagged guests into a day of celebration and champagne.

The direct route, flying three times a week in each direction, is expected to become a valuable connection for tourists and exports.

By 2006 Air New Zealand's new Boeing 777s - ordered last month and due to arrive in September next year - are likely to provide daily flights to San Francisco.

The airline has been considering the route for a decade.

However, recent boosts to New Zealand's profile, increased tourism, and dissatisfaction with Los Angeles airport - where Air New Zealand has been flying since 1965 - made it viable.

Logistics for inaugural flights are tricky; training, for example, was needed for around 60 pilots for the San Francisco route.

Air New Zealand's Boeing 747 - decorated with a Frodo the hobbit image and carrying 350 paying passengers - was washed down with blasts from two lime-green fire trucks as it arrived.

The current schedule means 60,000 seats a year will be available each way, and 40,000 of those will need to be filled to make the route comfortably profitable.

Air New Zealand chief executive Ralph Norris, who arrived on the flight with Tourism New Zealand chief executive George Hickton and Auckland Mayor John Banks, was escorted into the airport's museum flanked by a kapa haka group of airline staff.

A Maori welcome, practised for two months, met with whoops and cheers from the assembled dignitaries in suits, and media in jandals and jeans, before the business of celebrating the flight's arrival began.


It was the similarities between New Zealand and San Francisco - biotech, wine, a liberal political outlook - that speakers focused on when they talked of the positives that could come from the direct flights.

Expatriate New Zealand businessman Tony Wilson, who is based just east of San Francisco and owns the acclaimed The Pasta Shop and Kaikoura Lodge, sees the flights as a huge opportunity to bring Americans to New Zealand.

Rob Taylor, New Zealand consul-general in Los Angeles, said he believed the direct flights would help New Zealand companies looking to raise capital from American investors.

Norris said the new route was expected to reduce demand for flights from New Zealand to Los Angeles, which will be cut from 28 a week to 25.

He said the financial return on the three San Francisco flights was expected to more than make up for losing the three flights to Los Angeles.

"People want to fly point to point, not want to go through a hub and add stress," Norris.

"People tell us they don't like flying through LA. If they can do it direct there is much more appeal."