Six Airlines: Connecting Auckland To Sydney

It’s not just the nation’s flag carriers cashing in on the popular route between Auckland, New Zealand, and Sydney, Australia, with up to fifteen flights daily between city pairs. Looking at a Friday in December, flights leave from 06:00 in the morning to 20:00 at night.

Narrowbodies and widebody aircraft take flight on the route, from the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-8 to the B777 and A330.

A three-hour trip across the Tasman makes the journey easy for many, providing business and leisure travelers ample opportunities to make the most of a day’s work in either city or connect to a wide range of destinations at each respective airport.

Read more: A Look At The Trans-Tasman Market

Qantas is leading the pack for departures.

Australian carrier Qantas is currently at the top of the leaderboard when looking at the number of daily departures in December. On Friday 8th, the carrier will take off from Auckland International Airport (AKL), bound for Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport, eight times!

QF currently provides the earliest departure from the City of Sails (Auckland) at 06:00 and operates throughout the day until its final flight at 19:00 westbound. The Flying Kangaroo also deploys the 787 Dreamliner on the route when operating its flagship SYD-AKL-JFK route, going head-to-head with the Kiwi carrier.

Photo: Peterfz30 | Shutterstock

Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand, which calls Auckland home, facilitates six daily departures on Friday analyzed and is the only carrier to depart AKL between 09:00 and 11:00, with two departures in this window. The airline deploys the most wide bodies daily between AKL and SYD, with most flights operated by the 787-9 and 777-300. The A320 / 321neo facilitates some afternoon departures.

LATAM Chile?

Santaigo-based LATAM Airlines intriguingly operates a fifth freedom service between Auckland and Sydney as an add-on for its popular Santaigo to Auckland route. This means passengers can taste Chile on their way to and from New South Wales, with a convenient 07:45 departure from Auckland seven days a week.

China Eastern and AirAsia X

Adding to the list of peculiar airlines connecting Auckland and Sydney are two Asian carriers. China Eastern recently started to serve AKL to SYD on November 6th, in a triangle routing between Hangzhou, Auckland, and Sydney. Twice a week, the carrier will operate in either direction.

Those fans of AirAsia will only have a few weeks left to enjoy the carrier’s low-cost operation to Sydney, with the airline A330 looking to swap out its AKL-SYD to Kuala Lumpur flights to go via the Gold Coast (OOL) instead. AirAsia’s daily Sydney service will stop at the end of January.

Photo: Ryan Fletcher / Shutterstock

Jetstar

Qantas’ low-cost carrier, Jetstar, is the final carrier connecting Auckland to Sydney with one daily service. The flight leaves at the crack of dawn, just behind its big brother Qantas. JQ, which deploys its trusty A320 on the route, departs at 06:20 daily, touching down in Sydney at 08:00.