Air New Zealand Adding Flights to Middle Earth

by James Ruggia
Last updated: 4:46 PM ET, Mon September 22, 2014

PHOTO: Air New Zealand is offering up more flights to New Zealand in celebration of the Hobbit, which is good news seeing as one does not simply walk to New Zealand. (Courtesy of Air New Zealand)

According to Virtuoso, New Zealand saw an increase of 196 percent growth year-on-year, making it the consortia's top destination on their "Hot List." Flush with traffic, Air New Zealand is adding flights from Los Angeles to Auckland next summer from twice to three times a day to three times daily on three days of the week.

"Fueled by the popularity of the Lord of the Rings films, New Zealand has become a stand-alone destination in its own right rather than being tacked onto an Australia trip for a few days," said Virtuoso senior vice president, consumer David Kolner. "It's often a first trip abroad for a family, and is appealing to everyone from foodies to adventure-seekers."

And therein lies the need for more capacity. Until now, Air New Zealand's (ANZ) Los Angeles service has predominantly run twice daily, but during the 2015 Summer season (April to October), there will be a third flight departing Auckland on Monday, Thursday and Saturday, representing a 20 percent boost in total capacity.

The new service will depart Auckland earlier than the current daily services arriving in Los Angeles around 9a.m. and enabling same day connections with Midwest and East Coast US destinations. The new outbound service will depart Los Angeles later than current services accommodating later connections while still arriving into Auckland at 7a.m. in time for passengers to connect to domestic New Zealand and Australia.

In December, the third and final installment in the Hobbit Trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies and Air New Zealand will be stirring the pot again. Tourism New Zealand will probably be holding séances to bring back J.R.R. Tolkien to sow the seeds of new Peter Jackson movies. ANZ is an enthusiastic supporter of Tourism New Zealand's Hobbit-based marketing.

"Air New Zealand has invested heavily in recent years in campaigns to market The Hobbit films and we have seen interest in New Zealand as a destination grows as a result," said Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon.

Tourism New Zealand and ANZ, in conjunction with New Line Cinema, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures are running The Hobbit Fan Fellowship Contest to find 75 winners who can each take a friend to New Zealand aboard Air New Zealand. Winners will spend a week visiting film locations and other attractions throughout New Zealand, culminating in a private screening of the final film with Sir Peter Jackson himself. The contest features four different challenges to Hobbit fans, for details visit www.TheHobbitFanContest.com.

Queenstown was the location of many battle scenes in The Hobbit Trilogy, and many film fans have been coming to the city on top of the adventure seekers who would normally visit. By August of this year, Queenstown had recorded its highest-ever guest nights for a 12 month period. For the year end June 2014 total Queenstown guest nights were up 9.8 percent over the previous year to 2,908,025.

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