Featured Map for 9 June 2018:
Trans-Tasman Fifth-Freedom Flights

Last week, Qantas and Air New Zealand announced a reciprocal codeshare agreement that will put the Qantas code on up to 30 ANZ routes within New Zealand, and ANZ's code on up to 85 Qantas routes within Australia. The arrangement will allowi each airline to extend the utility of their own Trans-Tasman flights (which will not themselves carry the partner's code). Former ANZ partner Virgin Australia is increasing its Trans-Tasman flying to make up for the lack of connections within New Zealand.

Meanwhile, five other carriers are flying Trans-Tasman routes using fifth-freedom rights. LATAM flies from Santiago to Auckland and on to Sydney while four carriers fly from their home countries to Australia and on to New Zealand:

Flight	Route	Aircraft	Airline
LA 801 (800)	SCL-AKL-SYD	787-9	LATAM
D7 206 (207)	KUL-OOL-AKL	A330-300	AirAsia X
CI 53 (54)	TPE-BNE-AKL	A350-900	China Airlines
EK 412 (413)	DXB-SYD-CHC	A380-800	Emirates
SQ 247 (248)	SIN-MEL-WLG	777-200ER	Singapore Airlines

In addition, CI 57 (58) operated TPE-MEL-CHC twice weekly using an A330-300 through 24 March. The thrice-weekly TPE-MEL route continued after that date with an A350-900 but the tag to Christchurch was dropped.

Today's Featured Map shows the fifth-freedom routes across the Tasman Sea along with the routes from the airlines' home countries. Thanks to Bryan M. for suggestng the map and compiling the initial data.

References and additional information:

• Cranky Flier
  • Air New Zealand Starts Dating Its Former Best Friend's Worst Enemy (5 June 2018)
  • Air New Zealand, Virgin Australia Prepare for Battle as Joint Venture Ends (24 April 2018)
• Qantas
  • Qantas and Air New Zealand Announce Codeshare Deal to Make Travel Easier (1 June 2018)
• Air New Zealand
• Virgin Australia
  
  
• Freedoms of the Air – International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
• LATAM
• AirAsia X
• China Airlines
• Emirates
• Singapore Airlines