Passengers onboard a recent Qantas
flight between New York and Auckland were diverted to Fiji and, eventually, Sydney
. The flight, which is QF4, is a scheduled service that operates four times a week between New York and Sydney via Auckland, utilizing the flying kangaroos’

Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner
.

Using Auckland as a one-stop route between Australia and the Big Apple

Qantas decided to go head to head with hometown carrier, Air New Zealand
, from Auckland on the lucrative New York – Auckland route in June last year, in light of the capabilities of the Dreamliner aircraft that can make the distance without refueling.

At the time, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce
reiterated that the airline is committed to connecting New Zealand, and Auckland provides the ideal springboard to connect to JFK, avoiding the lengthy delays airline passengers used to experience when Qantas flew to New York but via Los Angeles International Airport
.

Qantas Boeing 787-9 landing at DFW shutterstock_2401094475

Photo: Austin Deppe | Shutterstock

Followers of the Australian carrier know full well of the airline’s ambitions to one day connect Sydney directly to New York as part of its ‘Project Sunrise’ initiative. This initiative will utilize the Airbus A350-1000ULR
, which will serve New York and London directly from Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD).

Related

Will We Ever See A Flight Longer Than Qantas’ Project Sunrise?

Qantas is planning to set a new record for the world’s longest regularly scheduled flight with Project Sunrise. Project Sunrise will see the airline connecting London to Sydney with non-stop flights using specially modified Airbus A350s. These flights will take up to 20 hours. But do you think we will ever see longer flights in the future?

A long trip on QF4

Looking at data from Flightradar24, it appears that on Wednesday, October 4, ZK-ZNN was scheduled to depart from New York John F. Kennedy Airport at 19:20 for the 16-hour journey southwest to New Zealand and eventually to Sydney. However, it was delayed until 20:07 local time.

Once it departed from New York, it quickly rose to its cruising altitude of 34,000 feet, and the journey seemed to operate as usual as it headed across the Pacific Ocean. However, as the flight passed the nation of Tonga, it appeared the aircraft made a sharp turn back towards Fiji, touching down at Nadi International Airport (NAN) at 04:38 local time on October 4 (the flight crossed the international date line).

qf4

Simple Flying reached out to Qantas to get clarification on why the flight was unable to continue with its nonstop service to Auckland. It was advised that due to fog at

Auckland International Airport
(AKL), the flight would’ve been unable to land safely, so the decision was made to divert to Fiji.

After waiting some time on the apron in Fiji
, fog still had not lifted in the City of Sails, so the decision was made for the flight to continue onto Sydney directly, departing from Nadi at 16:48 and arriving back in Australia at 21:00. It Affected passengers who required onward flights to New Zealand, who were re-accommodated on one of the many services the airline operates between Sydney and Auckland each day.

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