American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) and United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) are studying the possibility of opening up direct flights between the mainland United States and New Zealand, Stuff magazine has reported.
Though the market is currently dominated by Air New Zealand (NZ, Auckland International) with its Auckland International to San Francisco and Los Angeles International flights, the magazine reports United Airlines is now weighing the potential of using B787s for its own San Francisco-Auckland route while American is studying Los Angeles-Auckland services. United had, at one point, indicated it would open up Houston Intercontinental-Auckland flights only to scrap those plans in 2012 when Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) was awarded international traffic rights out of Houston Hobby airport.
Air New Zealand serves Los Angeles 3x daily during the high season and is also considering adding a third destination in the US – possibly Chicago O'Hare, Houston Intc'l, or even Las Vegas Harry Reid – to its network. As such, the added capacity could render the market less attractive to any potential new entrants.
According to the ch-aviation route database, other operators plying the New Zealand-US market include Air Tahiti Nui (TN, Papeete) (via Papeete) and Hawaiian Airlines (HA, Honolulu) (via Honolulu). Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith), which last offered Auckland-Los Angeles flights in 2012, has no plans to resume the route.
