New Zealand Extends Traffic Rights in China
By Maggie, China Aviation Daily | Apr. 06, 2017
From March 14 - 15, 2017, China and New Zealand's civil aviation delegation held new bilateral talks in Beijing, and have achieved agreements on extending traffic rights arrangement. In recent years, Sino-New Zealand air transport market kept medium- to high- speed growth. In 2016, passenger traffic on Sino-New Zealand flights totaled 0.6 million, up 37% year on year. It is predicted that it would keep rapid growth in the future 2-3 years.
From September 2015, Chinese airlines have launched 5 routes to New Zealand. The weekly flights between China and New Zealand amounted to 36 flights. It is reported that Sichuan Airlines plans to launch Chengdu - Auckland route on June 13, 2017.
Passengers take nonstop flights from China to New Zealand has been growing, where Shanghai, Guanghzhou and Beijing are major outbound cities. Due to the fact that a significant amount of Chinese travellers choose Australia and New Zealand as destinations at the same time, some passengers in China-New Zealand nonstop flights market would be diverted to China-Australia routes. Considering that nonstop routes between China and Australia are growing continuously, in a foreseeable future, Sino-New Zealand routes with a relevant slow growth in demand are still facing challenges.