Air New Zealand’s first flight between Auckland and Seoul took off on Saturday November 23 from Auckland just before 12.30pm (local time) and landed in Seoul around 7.50pm (local time).
The airline will fly this service, which has a flight time of 12 hours northbound and just over 11 hours southbound, on a Boeing 787-9 aircraft on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Between December 25 and February 19 the airline will also fly between Auckland and Seoul on Wednesdays, in addition to Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It will also fly between Auckland and Seoul on Sundays between December 29 and February 16. Below is the flight schedule:
| Flight number | Route | Departs | Arrives | Frequency | Aircraft |
| NZ75 | Auckland-Seoul | 1125 | 1920 | Mondays | Boeing 787-9 |
| NZ75 | Auckland-Seoul | 1105 | 1900 | Wednesdays (25 December-19 February) | |
| NZ75 | Auckland-Seoul | 1035 | 1830 | Thursdays | |
| NZ73 | Auckland-Seoul | 1155 | 1950 | Saturdays | |
| NZ73 | Auckland-Seoul | 1420 | 2215 | Sundays (29 December-16 February) | |
| NZ76 | Seoul-Auckland | 2155 | 1305(+1) | Mondays | |
| NZ76 | Seoul-Auckland | 2215 | 1325(+1) | Wednesdays (25 December-19 February) | |
| NZ76 | Seoul-Auckland | 2210 | 1320(+1) | Thursdays and Saturdays | |
| NZ74 | Seoul-Auckland | 2355 | 1505(+1) | Sundays (29 December-16 February) |
Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787-9 has 302 seats, including 18 Business Premier seats (the airline’s business class product), 21 Premium Economy seats, and 263 economy class seats. Rows 36 to 43 and 36-41 feature the airline’s Economy Skycouch product, which offers passengers a row to themselves in the economy class cabin.
The airline’s business class seat on its Boeing 787-9 is an angled leather armchair that’s 22 inches wide and converts into a 79 inch bed. It also comes with a separate memory foam mattress, pillows and duvets.
“Inbound leisure travel from South Korea to New Zealand has grown significantly in recent years and we expect the numbers of visitors from the South Korean market to grow further, presenting a significant tourism growth opportunity for the New Zealand economy,” said Air New Zealand chief revenue officer Cam Wallace.
New Zealand’s flag carrier first announced that it would launch the new non-stop service to Seoul in March this year. The carrier first offered flights between Auckland and Seoul in the mid-1990s but said that it suspended the service “when travel patterns changed and there was stronger demand elsewhere on its network”.
In other Air New Zealand news, the airline said in October that it would reconfigure its wide-body fleet with a new seat product called Economy Stretch that will give passengers more legroom than a regular economy class seat. The new product will be available on its Boeing 787-9 aircraft from “late 2020”.
Air New Zealand’s new Economy Stretch seat to offer four inches more legroom on long-haul flights
