In April this Air New Zealand aircraft took off from Auckland for a repatriation flight from Frankfurt, Germany. Video / Supplied
The first of several flights Air New Zealand is operating for the German Government to repatriate stranded German nationals has departed Auckland Airport.
An Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300 departed Auckland at 4.30pm for Frankfurt via Vancouver and is expected to land at Frankfurt Airport early morning on Saturday, April4.
A team of Air New Zealand employees has put themselves forward to fly this mission. Four pilots and 12 cabin crew are operating Auckland-Vancouver, where the airline has positioned a full replacement crew to continue to Frankfurt.
Further repatriation flights using the airline's 342-seat 777-300 aircraft will depart from Auckland and Christchurch airports in coming days.
Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and standards officer Captain David Morgan says detailed plans are in place to ensure passengers return home safely, and the airline is grateful for the support of German and Canadian officials and the New Zealand Government.
"We are pleased to be able to help the German Government to safely bring its people home and our teams have quickly mobilised a schedule with daily flights scheduled through to next Wednesday, and more to come,'' he said.
Air New Zealand is working with several governments on requests for repatriation charters.
It is believed the airline could fly up to 12 repatriation flights over the next few weeks, including to Heathrow, an airport it pulled out of last month, earlier than planned, because of the coronavirus.
Qatar Airways is also flying stranded travellers home and is one of the last airlines operating anything like a full network, putting on more capacity into areas such as New Zealand and Australia where rivals have pulled out.
The Government approved a second daily Qatar Airways flight from Auckland to Doha, as part of measures to help repatriate up to 100,000 foreign nationals stranded here.
Earlier this week the airline came under fire for offering a seat (business class) from Auckland to London for $80,000.
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Late in March, Qatar said it would continue to operate about 150 daily flights to more than 70 cities worldwide while at that point 55 global airlines had completely stopped flying scheduled flights because of travel bans, restrictions and airspace closures.
Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker said: "We know there are many people who want to be with their families and loved ones during this difficult time."
He told Reuters his airline would eventually need to seek government support, and warned the Middle East carrier could soon run out of the cash required to continue flying.
"We have received many requests from governments all over the world, embassies in certain countries, requesting Qatar Airways not to stop flying," he said.
"We will fly as long as it is necessary and we have requests to get stranded people to their homes, provided the airspace is open and the airports are open."
Around the world there have been other unusual routes taken by airlines on mercy missions.
Early in February, Air New Zealand made a mercy dash to Wuhan (via Hong Kong) to return Kiwis and Australians from the original epicentre of Covid-19. The airline had never flown into Wuhan before and the return flight was non-stop back to Auckland.
Air Tahiti Nui 787 last week completed the world's longest commercial flight ever, the longest domestic flight ever, and the longest using a Dreamliner.
The journey from Pape'ete in Tahiti to Paris in France, covered 15,715km and took 15 hours and 45 minutes.
The record for a regular commercial service is Singapore Airline's route between Singapore and Newark, which is 15,343 km.
Earlier this week, Austrian Airlines flew a near-empty Boeing 777 non-stop from Vienna to Sydney as part of a repatriation mission for about 300 tourists to Europe. The southward flight of 15,961km took close to 17 hours while the return journey stopped en-route in Malaysia.
And last Saturday, a Lufthansa Boeing 747 operated a repatriation flight from Auckland to Germany via Japan. Airlines that have never flown here before are expected to arrive over coming weeks as part of the repatriation effort.
NZ Air Line Pilots Association president Andrew Ridling said there were a number of unusual routes being flown now but operating them would be routine for pilots.
''We have procedures and everyone does the same thing around the world. An approach chart for Wuhan is the same as an approach chart for LA. You're under radar for your arrival, the language is slightly different but it is a 3000m-long piece of concrete when you pop off your approach,'' he said.
''Due to the lack of traffic you've got more time to make those decisions. When you learn to fly, you learn those approaches.''
