China Southern Airlines, China's biggest carrier, will bypass Melbourne in favour of a direct Guangzhou-Auckland route, bolstering the projected economic benefit of the new service by half.
Last month the airline flagged a three-times-a-week service via Melbourne, but has ditched the Australian stopover after New Zealand government officials and Auckland tourism representatives affirmed their support for the route.
That's boosted the estimated injection into the Auckland economy to an annual $75 million from a previous forecast of $50 million.
Meetings with officials "gave us the confidence that the New Zealand market opportunity will be a great success and can lead to even greater opportunities for China Southern Airlines and our partners in the region," president and chief executive Tan Wan'geng said in a statement.
"Although we always envisaged moving eventually to direct flights if the service via Melbourne proved successful, we have now decided to make this commitment from day one."
Rising numbers of Chinese visitors helped underpin New Zealand's tourism market as the world's most populous nation managed to avoid the worst effects of the global financial crisis.
Air New Zealand says the service opens a different part of China to New Zealand and does not increase competition on trans-Tasman routes.
The airlines deputy chief executive, Norm Thompson, said it was a positive development for the New Zealand tourism industry as it would bring visitors from an important region of China.
The route would complement Air New Zealand's existing direct services between Auckland and Shanghai and Auckland and Beijing.
"We view this as a much more positive initiative than the previously mooted indirect service via Melbourne which would only have added to the congestion in the already over-serviced trans-Tasman market," Mr Thompson said.
Auckland Airport chief executive Simon Moutter said that having one of the largest airlines in the world flying direct to this country would drive more visitors here and give them more time to see what the country had to offer.
He said Auckland Airport was totally committed to growing the number of direct air links with China as quickly as possible to help ensure New Zealand gets its fair share of the fastest growing tourism market in the world.
Auckland Airport shares rose 2c to 223 today. Air NZ shares fell 1c to 152.
Prime Minister John Key, who also holds the tourism portfolio, has sought to drive the sector since winning office in 2008, last year injecting a further $30 million into attracting new visitors to New Zealand.
Tourism New Zealand chief executive Kevin Bowler said China is "critical" to New Zealand, which needs to capitalise on the expected doubling of international departures from the world's biggest nation to 100 million over the next five years.
"Attracting visitors from southern China specifically to holiday in New Zealand has always been challenging due to a lack of airline capacity, yet Guangdong region is a power house of Chinese industry," Bowler said.
- with NZPA
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