Hi everyone! I’m supporting this petition to keep the only direct flight between London and New Zealand which goes via Los Angeles on Air New Zealand.
It’s an essential flight both for people travelling to and from New Zealand to see their families and people travelling to and from Los Angeles. It is the fastest route and the only direct route and every plane is full which shows just how important it is.
You can help to keep this essential route open by signing the petition and sharing it with everyone you can think of and get them to sign it and share it with everyone they know too. It needs to go “viral” urgently so that as many people as possible get it and sign it.
Have a great week all!
I forgot to add that a news story was done on the petition, here is the link to that news story: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12279801
I’m guessing it’s no longer financially viable for them?
I’m a New Zealander and go backwards and forwards regularly. There are multiple reasons that particular flight never appeals; its expensive, its not much faster than cheaper routes (Thai do a 25 hour trip in one direction), LAX is a truly awful airport and on top of that the US requires transit passengers to apply in advance and pay for a visa just to hang out in the airport for a couple of hours.
In some ways it is a shame (I took that journey on the very first trip I made from NZ to the UK, back in the days before seat back TVs … oh, the horror) but Air NZ is a tiny international airline in the scheme of these things and the margins are tight.
It would be sad to see Air NZ’s international entity fold altogether because they couldn’t sustain the financial losses of flying routes that aren’t making them any money.
I have American friends from LA and they use this flight four to six times a year to visit their families and friends, attend weddings, big birthdays, events etc so it’s not just New Zealanders who are going to lose out. I’ve looked up online to see what other people are saying and it’s pretty bad, ie the airline is making a huge mistake. It seems that people prefer Air New Zealand over BA, United Airlines, American Airlines or Virgin Atlantic.
I have flown to the US on BA, United, Virgin, American Airlines and Air New Zealand and I find that Air New Zealand is far superior, that’s why I’m supporting the petition 
I also think they are right when they say Brexit is going to play a big part, and that for New Zealand not to have a presence in the UK/Europe is shooting themselves in the foot. The New Zealand government owns 53% of the airline, so I wonder if they have thought about the consequences of cutting themselves off?
I’m surprised that it’s continued as long as it has really. Airlines that are based at either ends of the globe don’t often fly their aircraft directly to the other side of the globe as those routes have been taken over by airlines whose hubs are at more convenient halfway-ish points. BA and other European airlines stopped flying their planes all the way to NZ years and years ago for this exact reason.
The tyranny of distance and all that.
But they’ll still be part of Star Alliance so people can still get to and from Europe using Air NZ, just not entirely on Air NZ planes.
I’m sure it’s an inconvenience for people who used them to travel between London and Los Angeles but it’s easy to see why the market might not be there for it anymore.
It’s interesting isn’t it. The Australian airline Qantas flies non-stop to London from Perth and they also fly from their other cities to London with a stopover, so it seems that all of these are important flights.
I’ve just been looking at the comments on the petition by those who signed and left a comment and it seems that this particular route is very popular with every plane full, so it seems peculiar that it wouldn’t be profitable when every flight is oversubscribed. There are people on social media saying they are devastated and others are saying that the airline is committing commercial suicide.
I guess the point of this petition is that it’s a well established very popular route and their customers want to keep using it because it’s their service that they want, not other airlines.
The Brexit point is very interesting, and there is also the loss of 155 jobs here in London, that’s really awful and I really feel for those people.
Is it really that surprising? Perth is more than 5000km away from NZ, or something like 7 hours flying time. It’s probably closer to the Northern Hemisphere than it is to NZ!
Qantas fly A380s to the UK (can highly recommend them, most comfortable long haul economy class I’ve flown in). I believe Air NZs largest aircraft are B777s. It’s hardly surprising that it would be more profitable to fly an aircraft all this way when it has 150 more seats and goodness knows how much more cargo space.
Good luck with the petition.
Qantas will be flying from Sydney to London non stop too: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/aug/22/qantas-tests-direct-flights-from-uk-and-us-sydney-australia
They obviously see how important it is to keep a presence in the UK and Europe.
Sydney is very close to New Zealand
Thanks for your good luck wishes, I’m doing everything I can to help support it
Ok, cool. Maybe you can petition Qantas to start up a LAX to LHR route too, if it’s such a fantastic money maker?
