Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia Airlines Announce New-look Joint Network

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Today we have announced plans for our new-look joint trans-Tasman network with Air New Zealand.

The Alliance has four key components:
- A broad free-sale code share arrangement covering all Tasman sectors and domestic Australian and New Zealand sectors as part of a connecting journey
- A revenue share agreement
- Reciprocal loyalty scheme benefits to members of Air New Zealand’s Airpoints loyalty programme and Virgin Australia’s Velocity Rewards programme.
- Reciprocal lounge access to qualifying guests of either airline

From the Press Release:

The alliance will connect Air New Zealand’s domestic network of 26 ports to Virgin Australia’s domestic network of 31 domestic ports, offering the largest ever Australasian route network for trans-Tasman travellers. The new network announced today will be effective for the upcoming Northern Winter 2011 schedule (November 2011 – March 2012) and tickets will be on sale from July this year when the codeshare commences.

Air New Zealand will operate approximately 70% of the capacity and Virgin Australia’s Pacific Blue airline will operate 30%, similar to the relative market share the airlines had prior to the commencement of the Alliance.

Total capacity is currently above that required by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and New Zealand Ministry of Transport (MOT).

It will see the adjustment of Air New Zealand and Pacific Blue flight times to ensure more convenient schedules for passengers, for example:

- Brisbane-Wellington – previously both airlines had flights at similar times four days per week and no afternoon flights on some days. The new schedule will see Pacific Blue operating a double-daily service of morning and afternoon/evening flights
- Brisbane-Christchurch – previously both airlines had flights at similar times four days per week. The new schedule will see the two airlines operate a combined double-daily service of morning and afternoon/evening flights
- Queenstown-Sydney – previously both airlines had flights at similar times on Tuesdays and Saturdays only, the new schedule will offer a flight five days a week in peak demand months
- Wellington-Sydney – previously both airlines had flights at similar times two days a week and no afternoon flights on some days. The new schedule will see Air New Zealand operating double-daily services of morning and afternoon/evening flights

There will also be transferring of capacity on some routes between the two airlines where appropriate, for example:

- Pacific Blue will take up Air New Zealand services between Sydney/Melbourne and Dunedin, operating during the December and January peak. There is also improved connectivity via Christchurch to new double daily Christchurch-Brisbane, Christchurch-Sydney and Christchurch-Melbourne services
- Air New Zealand will assume all Wellington-Sydney flying and Pacific Blue will assume all Brisbane-Wellington flying

Capacity changes will occur on some routes to match demand and market conditions, for example:

- Capacity on Air New Zealand Auckland-Adelaide services will increase by 16%, with a daily service in the peak summer months, and Auckland-Perth services will increase to eight times per week (up 4%) over the summer peak.
- Air New Zealand will take over operation of the Auckland-Cairns route and frequency will be matched to projected demand
- Total capacity into and out of Wellington is up 3.5%, with Melbourne-Wellington enjoying the largest increase of 10.5% and Brisbane-Wellington up 5%
- Capacity on Christchurch markets will be reduced by around 14% to match the reduction in demand as a result of the recent earthquake

Total capacity to and from Auckland remains unchanged, including Air New Zealand’s wide body services on Auckland-Sydney, Auckland-Melbourne and Auckland-Brisbane.

***

Exciting to finally be able to announce dates and details, with obviously more to come closer to the on sale date for tickets in July.

Look forward to hearing your feedback!
 
At the moment all I am waiting for this is:

- Reciprocal loyalty scheme benefits to members of Air New Zealand’s Airpoints loyalty programme and Virgin Australia’s Velocity Rewards programme.
- Reciprocal lounge access to qualifying guests of either airline.

Would they also be announced in July as well?!
 
Feel free to throw in a status match from other *A airlines to Air NZ. I'm sure quite a few people will jump at the chance to put their domestic and international points to the one airline.

I'm currently silver with cathay, gold with SQ and silver with virgin. By focusing on just the one, I may be able to crack gold elite with Air NZ...
 
I am interested in more details of the frequent flyer program reciprocity. Will Velocity members be able to earn points and enjoy elite status recognition on all Air NZ services, or is this only limited to trans tasman services?
 
I am interested in more details of the frequent flyer program reciprocity. Will Velocity members be able to earn points and enjoy elite status recognition on all Air NZ services, or is this only limited to trans tasman services?

Was wondering about this myself.
 
- Reciprocal loyalty scheme benefits to members of Air New Zealand’s Airpoints loyalty programme and Virgin Australia’s Velocity Rewards programme.
- Reciprocal lounge access to qualifying guests of either airline
- Capacity on Air New Zealand Auckland-Perth services will increase to eight times per week (up 4%) over the summer peak.

I'm interested in the above points.

I am curious which day will have 2 flights and what time the new flight will depart PER and what time it will arrive in AKL, the current one is horrible.
 
I am also interested in the loyalty side of things, of which not much was said. :(
 
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I am interested in more details of the frequent flyer program reciprocity. Will Velocity members be able to earn points and enjoy elite status recognition on all Air NZ services, or is this only limited to trans tasman services?

Given they said they are codeshares, would that not be a yes? It just means you have to make sure you are booked on the "DJ" flight number on Air NZ services, or vice versa.
 
I am curious which day will have 2 flights and what time the new flight will depart PER and what time it will arrive in AKL, the current one is horrible.

What's wrong with the current schedule of 175/176?
You depart late evening and arrive early morning. I honestly don't see any other way in which it could be scheduled better. Well actually- come to think of it a slightly later departure from PER would be appreciated.
 
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Information was also posted on the Air NZ Aust site which had some info on lounge access being reciprocal and frequent flyer points being able to be earned on both, but not until Nov 2011 as I read it, with more to be announced near July 2011. It all looks good to me being a koru member.
 
so........ when do we get Canberra to Wellington/Auckland/Christcurch instead of having to hub through Sydney/Brisbane or Melbourne. This would save us 5 hours wasted wait and commute time.

I know the Canberra Airport Owners are keen for direct flights. And there is ample cashed up residents (around 450,000) who would prefer the direct flights rather than the inconvenience of Sydney or BNE or MEL.

There is somethin John Borghetti can do a first on along with Air NZ - direct flights from CBR to NZ then Asia next.!

:p :shock: :p
 
Would love a firm answer to the question of when the lounge access will be reciprocal, be a very big win! Could affect some of my snow season bookings wink wink
 
The way i read it the lounge reciprocity began when the code-sharing started (July) but i may have simply been being overly optimistic.
 
The question I have about recripocity, for lounges is it for all flights or just codeshared flights? For example, would NZ G & GE members get access when flying on any DJ flight, or only when travelling on an NZ code on a flight operated by DJ, which is the way NZ/EY relationship works? Or would lounge access on DJ flights be only in connection with a TT itinerary? Lots of permutations and combinations of lounge access that I guess will be clarified over time.
 
What's wrong with the current schedule of 175/176?
You depart late evening and arrive early morning. I honestly don't see any other way in which it could be scheduled better. Well actually- come to think of it a slightly later departure from PER would be appreciated.

That's fine if you're flying with the intention of visiting New Zealand, but if you want to connect onwards to LAX ... We started planning our first trip to the US some time ago, and at that stage, the onward connection through Auckland suited us well so we intended to fly Air NZ - as you say, the flight from Perth gets in early morning and at then there was a connecting flight to LAX later in the morning. With current flight schedules, the absolute earliest you can get a connecting flight from Auckland to LAX (depending on what day you fly) is around 5.30pm and most of the flights offered as connections when booking through the website were much later in the evening, especially with sale fares.

A 12-15 hour stopover in Auckland??? No thanks (no offence to those who like Auckland, but I lived in NZ for 6 years so doing any sort of layover there isn't exactly a novelty - and on long-haul flights, the shorter the layover the better as far as I'm concerned). We're flying V Australia instead through Sydney - we could be at least halfway to LAX by the time we'd even be boarding the plane if we went via Auckland!
 
That's fine if you're flying with the intention of visiting New Zealand, but if you want to connect onwards to LAX ...
Or any other flight to North America for that matter. I can understand NZ's logic in having the flight arrive into AKL early, that way it has a full day of domestic connections available to it, but since all the flights to North America depart in the late afternoon or early evening it's just horrible timing for those.

I've often though about connecting this way since I'm a *A flyer, but the idea of coming off a red-eye overnight flight to then be stuck in the airport for 12 hours before boarding an overnight long-haul is just very unappealing when there are other options available.
 
Given they said they are codeshares, would that not be a yes? It just means you have to make sure you are booked on the "DJ" flight number on Air NZ services, or vice versa.

Where does it say that? My reading of the announcement is that FF reciprocity will extend to all Virgin and Air NZ flights regardless of what airline code one books under. Or it kinda defeats the idea of reciprocity IMO. However what isn't clear is whether FF reciprocity only extends to transtasman services, or all flights operated by Virgin/NZ regardless of whether they're transtasman or not. Past practice (eg similar FF agreements with DL and EY) would certainly imply that the former arrangement is also going to be the case with NZ but I simply want to be sure.
 
Sorry folk, been asked not to give anything away here until the formal lauch with CEOs, razzamatazz etc. when all will be announced. Let's just say earning points with each other on only the trans-Tasman sectors would be contrary to our argument to the ACCC and NZDoT that the primary benefit of the alliance is opening up a large number of new city pair combinations on either side of the Tasman. Ditto for lounge access.
cheers
CrazyDave98
 
Thanks crazydave98! :)

I'd go dig out the ACCC ruling which I'm sure will provide much valuable insight but I'm too lazy to do so...:oops:
 
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