Auckland Airport (AKL) is New Zealand’s largest and busiest airport, with approximately 18 million passengers passing through it yearly. Situated just outside the country’s most populous city, it serves as the nation’s primary hub for international flights and is also the home base of Air New Zealand, the country’s flag carrier.
New Zealand may be a land of spectacular natural beauty, but it is also very remote. Its nearest neighbor, Australia, is a 3.5-hour flight away across the Tasman Sea, and flights to Asia and North America stretch the range capabilities of even the most modern widebodies. Not surprisingly, AKL has some of the longest flights in the world, so let’s take a closer look at the ten longest routes from Auckland Airport.
10
Santiago
Distance: 5,995 miles
LATAM provides AKL’s only connection to South America, with a flight of just under 6,000 miles to Santiago in Chile. The airline flies the 12.5-hour route daily, utilizing one of its 303-seat Boeing 787-9s. This is configured with 30 business class seats and 273 economy seats, with the seats in the front six rows of economy marketed as LATAM+ and featuring additional legroom.
Photo: Vytautas Kielaitis | Shutterstock
9
Beijing
Distance: 6,475 miles
Air China connects Beijing (PEK) with AKL four times weekly, utilizing a Boeing 787-9. The aircraft has 293 seats in a 3-class layout: 30 Collins Aerospace Diamond seats in business class, 34 premium economy seats, and 229 seats in economy. The flight leaves PEK early morning for a daylight flight to AKL, with a 14-hour return leg overnight.
Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock
PEK is the furthest of eight Chinese cities that AKL is directly connected to. There are also flights from:
- Chengdu (6,500 miles): Sichuan Airlines (see below)
- Hangzhou (5,823 miles): China Eastern twice-weekly with an A330-200.
- Shanghai (5,818 miles): Air New Zealand daily with a B787-9 and China Eastern daily with an A350-900 or B777-300ER.
- Guangzhou (5,776 miles): China Southern daily with a B787-9
- Haikou (5,739 miles): Hainan Airlines thrice weekly with a B787-9
- Shenzhen (5,716 miles): Hainan Airlines thrice weekly with a B787-9
- Hong Kong (5,696 miles): Air New Zealand daily with a B787-9 and Cathay Pacific five times weekly with an A350-1000.
Photo: Alex JW Robinson | Shutterstock
8
Chengdu
Distance: 6,500 miles
Chengdu (TFU), the capital of Sichuan, is the ‘hub’ of western China and, with a population of over 21 million, is the fourth largest city in China. Like Beijing and Shanghai, it has two international airports: Chengdu Shuangliu (CTU), which was built in 1938 and is one of the oldest airports in China, and Chengdu Tianfu (TFU), which was opened in 2021.
Photo: Sichuan Airlines
Sichuan Airlines flies from TFU to AKL once a week using an Airbus A350-900, which Simple Flying recently reviewed. The aircraft type is relatively new to the airline, with eight delivered and a further six on order, and is configured with 331 seats (28 in business class and 303 in economy). The airline has also become quite famous for the panda-themed liveries that adorn its A350s.
7
Los Angeles
Distance: 6,512 miles
Los Angeles (LAX) is one of the core routes for flag carrier Air New Zealand. It offers ten flights a week using its B777-300ERs (twice daily on Sundays, Thursdays, and Saturdays), with some 26,000 available seats in September. The 368-seat B777s are configured with 40 seats in business class, 32 premium economy seats, and 296 seats in economy.
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Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flying
As the southern hemisphere summer takes shape, Delta Air Lines will launch LAX-AKL flights three times a week in October using its A350-900s after suspending daily flights earlier this year due to low volumes. American Airlines will also initiate daily B787-8 flights from LAX to AKL starting in early December to take advantage of the summer season.
Photo: American Airlines
6
San Francisco
Distance: 6,526 miles
United Airlines flies to AKL three times a week from its San Francisco (SFO) hub using a B787-9, with this expanding to a daily service from late October. Air New Zealand also uses SFO as an important connection point to its Star Alliance partner’s North American network and flies to SFO five times a week using a B777-300ER. In total, the partners offer more than 20,000 seats on the route each month.
Photo: Air New Zealand
5
Vancouver
Distance: 7,055 miles
Auckland’s third connection to the North American west coast is to Vancouver (YVR). Here, Air New Zealand connects to the hub of another Star Alliance partner in Air Canada, which is vital for onward connections across Canada and the US. It flies the route six times a week with a mix of B777-300ERs and B787-9s, providing 16,000 available seats in September. In December, Air Canada will join it on the route to take advantage of the summer months in New Zealand, providing a 4-times-weekly B787-9 service.
Photo: Air Canada
4
Houston
Distance: 7,417 miles
Another example of Air New Zealand connecting to its Star Alliance partners is at Houston (IAH), where it connects to United’s large southern US hub. This is the world’s 14th-longest commercial flight, just shy of United’s service from IAD to Sydney (SYD), and the return leg to AKL takes nearly 15 hours. Air New Zealand employs one of its 368-seat B777-300ERs on the route, which it flies six times a week.
3
Dubai
Distance: 8,819 miles
Emirates’ route from its home base in Dubai (DXB) to AKL is the longest route in its network at over 8,800 miles and the 8th-longest commercial flight in the world. With the AKL-DXB sector taking over 17 hours and the flight departing at 20h30, passengers effectively lose the entire subsequent day in-flight, landing at 05h30 on the second day after takeoff. To achieve this range, Emirates utilizes its 4-engined giant, the A380, providing 484 seats for each flight and over 29,000 in September, making this the largest route by volume of the ten routes considered here.
Photo: axell.rf | Shutterstock
2
New York
Distance: 8,828 miles
The route from AKL to New York (JFK) is the 7th-longest in the world and the second-longest to JFK, behind the Singapore Airlines SIN-JFK service with its A350-900ULR. It is flown by both Air New Zealand and Qantas (which notably also flies the 4th, 5th, and 6th-longest flights in the world):
- Air New Zealand flies the route three times a week using a B787-9. The JFK-AKL sector takes over 17.5 hours.
- Qantas also flies the route three times a week using a B787-9. The aircraft originates in SYD and stops in AKL before making the long-haul trip to JFK.
1
Doha
Distance: 9,026 miles
Qatar Airways has the longest route to AKL from its Doha (DOH) base. It clocks in at over 9,000 miles and has a nearly 18-hour AKL-DOH sector. This is the world’s third-longest flight (behind Singapore Airlines to JFK and EWR) and the longest flight in the Qatar Airlines network. To achieve this incredible distance, Qatar Airways utilizes an Airbus A350-1000, which has a range of just over 10,000 miles.
Photo: Vytautas Kielaitis | Shutterstock
The A350-1000s have 327 seats across two classes, with 46 in business class and 281 in economy. The business class seats are Qatar’s market-leading QSuites, which have been extensively reviewed by Simple Flying. They are arranged with forward-facing and rear-facing seats at alternate rows, with the ability to make dual-seat and quad-seat arrangements. Surely the best way to travel if you are about to embark on the equivalent of three transatlantic flights in one sitting.
Photo: Qatar Airways