Passengers board NZ1 tonight with little idea they’ve struck gold. Their ultra long-haul flight is about to enjoy rare and favourable weather conditions, considerably shortening their flight time.
This is the world’s 7th-longest flight which often clocks in at close to 18 hours, but on this occasion, it’s forecast to come in at under 17 hours – a handy result in the aviation industry, especially on ultra long-haul flights.
Planning for this heavy-duty route is strongly influenced by weather forecasts and the flight time can vary significantly – anywhere between 15 and 18 hours. The average flight time from New York to Auckland is 17 hours and 30 minutes.
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Finding the best route requires the input of super computers, pilot experience and a touch of luck from Mother Nature.
Air New Zealand’s flagship route is important to airline and country – a direct connection to the US east coast is rare from Australasia and this one is heavily skewed to inbound passengers ready to spend money. For those travelling business class, or even premium economy, they’ve already spent plenty.
To get them from one point to another on this trek through the sky takes planning and, occasionally, sacrifice.
For example, the return flight from JFK to Auckland is never full. It simply can’t be. As good as the Boeing 787 is at ultra long-haul flying, even it can’t manage a full payload of 302 passengers, plus crew, cargo and fuel for 14,700km.
They can hardly cut crew numbers and any reduction in fuel has an obvious reduction in range, so passenger numbers and cargo payload are reduced, especially if the prevailing westerly winds are stronger than usual.
This means reducing the total seating capacity by about 25 passengers. About 6 times a year the headwinds are so strong the flight stops in Fiji to refuel.
“We call it a tech stop,” explains Air New Zealand’s chief pilot David Morgan. “A few months ago, we did a 40-minute turnaround [in Fiji]. All they did of course, was a new crew came on board, they pumped the fuel that they needed. Nobody got off the airplane, the bags don’t come off.”
That flight landed in Auckland about 2.5 hours behind schedule. Other times they get lucky. Like the night we’re flying as guests of Air New Zealand.
Our flight path was less than conventional – at least for an outsider. For starters we headed north, crossing the border into Canada before gradually turning south-west and over Wyoming. We cross the western US coast near Los Angeles; much further north than if you’d drawn a simple line between New York and Auckland. We then head south-west across the Pacific Ocean. This path avoids the worst of the wind, which is stronger in the northern hemisphere winter, and weaker in summer.
David Morgan shows me an iPad loaded with weather maps.
“There is a database that goes from 3,000 feet to over 65,000 feet, with all of these dots around the world,” he says, pointing towards tiny flags spaced tightly across the globe.
It’s like a Google Maps of weather – showing pilots how to avoid traffic, or in this case head winds.
“It’s continuously updating the wind data. The aircraft transmit [as they go] what the wind is and the temperature and that’s fed back into the data.”
This Boeing 787 is close to its maximum take-off weight of 254 tonnes. Pilots’ calculations have us at 249 tonnes. We take longer than most planes to get off the ground at JFK airport.
That weight measurement doesn’t last long – the plane gets lighter as it burns fuel, shedding 100 kilograms every 70 seconds.
Once we’re in the air, the cabin crew begin their service. Flight attendant Shirley Li had less than five hours’ notice she’d be doing this flight; she was on standby at home and got the last-minute call-up to Air New Zealand’s longest flight.
“I was really lucky,” she tells us during a break in service. “I got called to come to New York!”
“New York is always challenging, because so much excitement comes along with it. But we know we need to be well-rested, so the preparation is not only packing your bags – in this situation quite frantically – but also trying to relax and get at least a two-hour nap beforehand.”
The service is constant for the first three hours of the flight. At the four-hour mark, the pilots start to swap and get some rest. Four flight crew are on board this sector and they have beds above the first three rows of the business class cabin, with a discreet access door and steep stairs in the galley. A similar bunk exists at the rear of the plane for flight attendants, who rotate on the 2-to-3-hour mark.
Much like passengers, the flight can start to drag for the workers too. “Around the 8-10 hour mark,” explains Shirley Li. “You’re like ‘Oh, better get a coffee or tea in the system.’”
But such is their professionalism and grooming standards you’d be hard pressed to work out when one of them’s just come back from a two-hour nap.
“We like our flight attendants to look approachable with fairly minimal make-up,” explains Shirley who goes on to explain what the layover in New York is like.
“You want to do one Broadway show! Depends on your preferences, shopping or definitely a slice of New York pizza. The rest is just go with the flow!”
Such is the generous timing of their layover, we have the same crew as the team that flew us to New York three days earlier.
The pilots score a 5-day layover in the city that never sleeps.
Cargo pallets on the way to New York see plenty of Kiwi wine make its way to the USA. On the return leg, the booze is swapped for pharmaceuticals being imported to New Zealand.
Shirley Li says she loves the job, “Because it gives me so much flexibility on how I want to manage my time outside of work. Obviously, all the destinations we get to go to, it’s a once in a lifetime experience.”
“Quite often I forget that I am working; it’s a special little job. Obviously, there are downsides – there are days when you’re really tired and feel like I’m going to waste the next day resting, but I do love my job.”
For David Morgan – who will retire from the Boeing 787 soon – his memories of flying into the old Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong are his favourite. The challenging angles required of pilots on final approach over apartment buildings would never be allowed in today’s safety-obsessed world.
He doesn’t necessarily pine for the old days, instead looking forward to the almost as spectacular arrivals into Queenstown when he downsizes the aircraft he flies, “threading the needle down through the mountains,” he said with a smile.
The thrill of flying seems to exists whether you’re jetting across timezones or simply your own country.