Air Travel: Nonstop From NYC – NZ, JetBlue’s Caribbean Expansion

Major new flights lead this week’s air travel news. 

This week Air New Zealand and United Airlines announced plans to launch the first and only nonstop service between New Zealand and the East Coast of the United States. Starting in October 2020, Air New Zealand will begin three-times-weekly nonstop service between Auckland and New York’s Newark Liberty International Airport on Air New Zealand’s newly configured Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. The flight time will be approximately 17 hours and 40 minutes southbound and 15 hours and 40 minutes northbound. 

In the Caribbean, JetBlue announced plans to further expand its footprint in the region during an outlook forum organized by the Caribbean Tourism Organization. Mike Pezzicola, head of commercial for JetBlue Travel Products, the airline's travel booking arm, said that it’s looking to increase capacity in the years ahead, as well as increase bookings of ground transportation, tours, hotels and attractions through JetBlue Travel Products. 

In Europe, low-cost transatlantic carrier Norwegian announced plans to add nonstop service between Austin and Paris for the summer 2020 season, making it the first airline to offer two nonstop European destinations from Austin – Bergstrom International Airport and the first to the French capital. Flights will operate three times per week, starting May 6, 2020.

Air France – KLM announced its 2019 – 2020 winter schedule. This year’s schedule represents a 4 percent capacity increase on the airline’s long-haul network with one new flight from Paris with Air France to Quito, Ecuador, and four new flights from Amsterdam with KLM to Boston, Las Vegas, Liberia, Costa Rica and Bangalore, India

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