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<\/p>\nAir New Zealand and United Airlines have agreed to form a joint venture between the air carriers. The agreement between the two Star Alliance partners will take effect this coming July, when United Airlines starts its service between San Francisco, California and\u00a0Auckland, New Zealand. The terms call for coordinating\u00a0sales and marketing between the two airlines, as well as tweaking of the airlines’\u00a0schedules for optimum through passenger connections.<\/p>\n
Air New Zealand currently provides\u00a0nonstop service from its base in Auckland, New Zealand\u00a0to four US cities and Vancouver, Canada. The\u00a0US cities served are Honolulu, Hawaii, Houston, Texas, as well as\u00a0Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. New Zealand has been enjoying an increase in\u00a0tourism the last few years, with\u00a0over 3 million visitors\u00a0in calendar 2015.\u00a0The joint venture between Air\u00a0New\u00a0Zealand and United Airlines will offer up to 33 weekly flights\u00a0between the mainland US and New Zealand during the upcoming December to January peak travel periods, providing customers more choice of flight times and better connections.<\/p>\n
Air\u00a0New\u00a0Zealand will continue to operate its Boeing 777-300 ER and Boeing 777-200 ER aircraft between San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Houston to and from\u00a0Auckland with\u00a0Business Premier, Premium Economy, and Economy class service, including the airlines Economy Skycouch option. United Airlines will initially operate Boeing 787-8 aircraft on its routes, before upgrading the aircraft in\u00a0November of 2016 to the\u00a0larger capacity Boeing 787-9 aircraft model. Both United\u00a0787 versions\u00a0will offer United Business First and United Economy, including the airlines Economy Plus seating option.<\/p>\n
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