Air New Zealand expects up to 70 employees to be terminated early next year after the carrier cuts its five to seven times weekly services between Hong Kong and London.

Exiting the route from 4 March 2013, customers holding tickets to commence travel with Air New Zealand between Hong Kong and London from that date will be re-booked.

The carrier will contact affected customers or their agents to confirm their re-booking and reissue their tickets.

Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe confirmed the Hong Kong to London route was expected to become non-profitable in the foreseeable future and would not assist the airline’s focus on returning its international network to profitability.

However, he said the decision to exit the route would enable more capacity to be redeployed onto North American destinations including; Los Angeles and San Francisco.

In a separate move, the airline also unveiled a new strategic agreement with Cathay Pacific to code share on flights operated by both airlines between Auckland and Hong Kong.

Receiving the required regulatory approval, the airlines will commence code share from 31 January next year, with ticket sales starting on 12 December this year.

Mr Fyfe explained Hong Kong is a “key strategic Pacific Rim port” and expects the agreement to provide customers with a “huge range” of connections through Hong Kong to Mainland China.

 “We also believe that the benefits arising from this agreement will stimulate tourism from Mainland China to New Zealand through the enhanced connectivity between Cathay Pacific and Dragonair’s services to and from Mainland China with the new code-share services to New Zealand,” he said.

The combined NZ and CX schedule on AKL-HKG from 31 January 2013 is as follows:

1. From HKG to AKL

2. From AKL to HKG

·         The above schedules and flight numbers are subject to change
·         CX117/118 operates from 2 December 2012 to 1 March 2013
Some examples of enhanced itineraries through the agreement are as follows:
From Auckland to Beijing via Hong Kong
Before cooperation

-       Connection Time - 12:10
-       Total Elapsed Time - 26:50
After cooperation

-       Connection Time - 2:55
-       Total Elapsed Time - 17:16
From Auckland to India (Chennai) via Hong Kong
Before cooperation

-       Connection Times    1310+1    Connection Time - 16:30 hrs
-       Total Elapsed Time – 33:16 hrs

After cooperation

-       Connection Times    1310+1    Connection Time - 1:45 hrs
-       Total Elapsed Time - 18:45 hrs