More flights on the way and not just from London

More Air New Zealand flights into Britain are set to be announced in the next two months.

Chief executive Rob Fyfe said yesterday talks about new flights were "quite well advanced" - but takeoff and landing slots in London needed to be secured first, then the "staging point" decided.

Air NZ flies to and from Heathrow once a day, via Los Angeles, but a deal signed by the British Government last year allows almost unlimited flights between Britain and New Zealand.

Air NZ has long wanted more flights from London, especially during the peak kiwi summer tourist season. But now more flights are allowed, it has to negotiate for slots, which are hard to come by at crowded Heathrow. Gatwick, south of London, is a possibility, but is less convenient to get to.

The arrival of new long-haul Boeing 777 aircraft is allowing Air NZ to look at flying new routes, including the likely opening of a new Shanghai service this year. Boeing's vice-president of marketing, Randy Baseler, was in Auckland yesterday, talking up the potential of the new Boeing 787.

Air NZ was one of the first airlines to commit to the plane, which will be the first commercial jet to be built largely of carbon fibre composites - and so lighter, using less fuel and going further.

Baseler said the planes would allow more "city-pairs" to be introduced by airlines. He was also promoting a new, stretched version of the Boeing 747-400. Air NZ, which has eight 747s in its fleet, would be a likely sales target for these planes.