The liberalised New Zealand-UK bilateral opens the way for Air New Zealand (ANZ) to fly to Europe via Asia, so that it can circle the globe both ways to reach London. Before this pact, ANZ and British Airways both were limited to seven weekly flights, a restriction that frustrated ANZ. Departing chief executive Ralph Norris says: “We were using all seven through Los Angeles to London. We didn’t want to reduce that below daily service, because that would make the LA-London route uneconomic.”
The cap effectively blocked ANZ from considering other routes to London, even though the UK is its second largest market. ANZ still needs to secure slots for any added flights into Heathrow, but the new bilateral lifts all capacity limits and allows New Zealand and UK carriers to pick up and leave passengers at intermediate points.
Source: Airline Business
