Virgin Australia will begin flying from Newcastle to Auckland from November this year, with the new seasonal route tapping into demand over the summer period.
A Boeing 737 with eight business class seats, 30 Economy X seats and 138 standard economy seats will make the three hour trip every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday from 22 November 2018 to 17 February 2019.
Flight VA199 will depart from Newcastle Airport at 7.30pm on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, reaching Auckland at 12.25am the following day.
The VA198 return leg will be wheels-up from Auckland at 5.10pm and arrive into Newcastle at 6.45pm.
Flights will be on sale at the Virgin Australia website from today, with the airline saying it will consider extending the Newcastle-Auckland service further into 2019 based on demand.
The route signals the start of a second wave of expansion for Virgin's trans-Tasman network since the airline announced it would part ways with one-time ally Air New Zealand on October 28, 2018.
Virgin Australia is launching new routes between Sydney and Wellington and between Melbourne and Queenstown from October this year, with extra flights also being added to Auckland from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Read more: Virgin Australia launches Queenstown, Wellington flights
Air New Zealand has since inked a codeshare alliance with Qantas to take effect from October 28, although this will be restricted to each airline's domestic routes and not cover the hotly-contested trans-Tasman corridor, which seens an estimated 2.8 million travellers shuttle between Australia and New Zealand each year.
The alliance will see Qantas stamp its QF code onto 30 domestic AirNZ services across New Zealand, while the Kiwi carrier will in turn plant its NZ prefix on 85 domestic Qantas flight in Australia.
Qantas and Air New Zealand business class passengers and top-tier frequent flyers will enjoy reciprocal airport lounge access, while travellers will also be able to earn points and status credits in each airline's respective loyalty program on flights booked under the appropriate codeshare.
Also read: Here are three ways Virgin Australia intends to win against Air New Zealand
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
why did NZ pull out of the AKL/NTL back in 2003 ?
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
30 Jul 2015
Total posts 15
It was operated by then ANZ owned LCC airline Freedom Air from memory and due to not enough demand
18 Jul 2018
Total posts 2
Freedom only sold direct to public so travel trade never supported. This was before the likes of Jetstar were around and direct sell became the domestic norm
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 May 2013
Total posts 138
They could do MCY-AKL to compete against ANZ in winter once their relationship ceases?
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 May 2013
Total posts 138
AirNZ flies MCY to AKL in Winter. Ofcourse, MCY to CHC/ZQN would be welcome but these services would not be competing with AirNZ
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
why would VA want to compete with NZ ?
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
looks like fares start at AUD$310 return per adult, which is great when you consider govt charges are around AUD$180
18 Jul 2018
Total posts 2
Article in local media said $350 each way
28 Dec 2016
Total posts 71
Ok maybe they should consider SYD-CHC?
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
06 Feb 2012
Total posts 30
what about Canberra?! when will that ever happen?
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
14 Mar 2017
Total posts 152
And still nothing out of Canberra...
Jetstar Airways - Qantas Frequent Flyer
19 Jan 2018
Total posts 5
This gets the record for the best beat up of the week!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
09 Feb 2015
Total posts 382
Better than nothing and at least they are giving it a trial. Don’t know unless you try.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
30 May 2013
Total posts 372
Great news for Newcastle and Auckland. I wonder how long it will be until we see a carrier announce flights between Auckland and Hobart?
29 Mar 2017
Total posts 34
That’s exciting news for us Novocastrians!!!
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
27 Jan 2017
Total posts 7
Such good news for Newcastle. I often fly NTL-BNE to get to my final destination rather than go from Sydney. Personally I would consider NTL-AKL then to LAX in the future as an alternative to SYD-LAX or NTL-BNE-LAX
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
NTL/AKL & AKL/LAX don't connect with NTL/AKL arriving back in AKL just after midnight, it mean all day in AKL
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
27 Jan 2017
Total posts 7
Dammit should've looked into that first before I got my hopes up.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
21 Jan 2014
Total posts 321
Great to see another regional city get direct access to international flights, they have been taking about flights here in TSV to AKL for years but zero results so well done Newcastle for making these a reality.
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
GBRGB it's not like it's the 1st time there were NTL/AKL/NTL nonstops
Qantas
19 Apr 2012
Total posts 1425
This discussion and the comments in general loves talking in code. Why not spell out the cities and save us looking them up. Apart from the ones I use on a regular basis eg CBR and SYD I would not have a clue what most of this discussion is thanking about. Posts should be clear to all in my mind just sayin
20 Sep 2012
Total posts 77
You should only need to look up each one you don't know once. Then you're forever informed.
24 Oct 2010
Total posts 2555
Patrickk, I agree that this can be mystifying to many people not of that ilk, which is why on Australian Business Traveller articles we never use three-letter airport codes (with the exception of LAX) and almost never use two-letter airline codes, so that our stories are immediately accessible to and understood by the mainstream. However, many readers posting comments adopt this form of 'shorthand' out of convenience and because it's almost second nature if not a second language to them.
17 Sep 2015
Total posts 388
Sensible policy, but many of the airline codes are pretty easy to decipher. MEL, SYD, BNE, ADL, PER, CNS and DRW fit into that: HBA may be a bit harder since many might expect it to be 'HBT.'
Air New Zealand - Airpoints
10 Aug 2015
Total posts 79
It's really not that much different from say AKL-OOL or AKL-MCY when there is AKL-BNE as well.
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
24 Apr 2015
Total posts 128
17 Sep 2015
Total posts 388
Why use road coaches subject to freeway and other delays, and uncomfortable, when there's the Sydney Airport train and connecting frequent Gosford and Newcastle trains that do the job and as a bonus offer more beautiful scenery than seen from the road, especially if there's a heavy vehicle in front of the cramped coach?
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