Air New Zealand announces direct flights to Chicago’s O’Hare International airport.

• March 28, 2018
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Air New Zealand will commence direct services between Auckland and Chicago from November 2018. The service will be operated using a Boeing 787-9, three times a week. Flight time will be approximately 15 hours northbound and just over 16 hours southbound. This is in addition to an announcement United Airline made to extend its seasonal services between Auckland and San Francisco to year round from April 2019.

United’s service will be operated by its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft featuring United Polaris business class service between November and March and Boeing 777-200ER aircraft between April and October. United operates more than 290 daily flights from San Francisco to 79 airports across the US and 26 international destinations.

Air New Zealand CEO, Christopher Luxon said, “We expect the addition of Chicago to our network to be an attractive option for Kiwis wanting to explore the city or head on to other North American destinations. As well as being great for travellers, this new route is good news for New Zealand, as we expect it to contribute around NZD$70 million annually to our economy and we know that more than 50 percent of spending by US visitors to New Zealand is done outside of the main centres. We’ll be working alongside our colleagues at United Airlines to grow the route and visitor numbers in both directions”.

Chicago is an exciting destination with a lot to offer from its incredible history, museums and architecture to world-renowned jazz music and famous dishes including the iconic deep dish pizza.

Since Air New Zealand and United commenced their alliance in 2016, the joint venture has opened up more travel options for New Zealand and US travellers than ever before. Overall passenger volumes have grown and more than 30 percent of customers travelling to the US connect to United’s broad domestic network from its hubs in Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.