Air New Zealand Limited: Connecting New Zealand to the Rest of the World

Air New Zealand Limited is the flag carrier of New Zealand. Daily, the airline company has 27 domestic flights and 26 international flights to 15 countries in Oceania, North America, Europe and Asia. At present, only Air New Zealand’s aircrafts have circumnavigated the world. The company joined the Star Alliance global airline alliance in 1999.

The airline’s headquarter is located about 20 kilometers away from Auckland Airport in a building which they call “The Hub.” Air New Zealand’s central operations are found in the Auckland Airport.

Before becoming the Air New Zealand, the company was known as Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL). TEAL was a flying boat company with trans-Tasman flights to and fro New Zealand and Australia. After the World War II, TEAL had weekly flights to Sydney, Wellington and Fiji. The governments of New Zealand and Australia owned 50% of the shares in TEAL in 1953. When DC-8 aircrafts replaced TEAL’s flying boat operations, TEAL became a wholly-owned company by the government of New Zealand in 1965, at which time the name was changed from TEAL to Air New Zealand.

The DEC-8 aircrafts allowed Air New Zealand to travel transpacific to the US and some parts of Asia. In 1965, Los Angeles and Honolulu were added to its destinations. By 1973, Air New Zealand was flying the wider bodied DC-10.

In 1989, however, the government privatized a large portion of its operations when it tied up with Ansett Australia, an Australian carrier. Ansett suffered great financial losses and majority ownership of Air New Zealand was reverted back to the government of New Zealand in 2001. Air New Zealand transports an annual average of 11.7 million passengers as of 2008.

Air New Zealand’s international flights operate with a fleet that consists of Airbus A320, Boeing 747, Boeing 767 and Boeing 777 aircrafts. Its domestic flights are carried by a fleet of Airbus 320 and Boeing 737 aircrafts. Some of the company’s short hauls are operated by its regional subsidiaries Mount Cook Airline, Eagle Airways and Air Nelson. Air New Zealand was the recipient of The Air Transport World Global Airline Awards’ Airline of the Year in 2010 and 2012.