A new alliance sealed between Qantas and American Airlines could bring more American tourists to New Zealand, an aviation industry expert says.
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The deal means some parts of the airlines' business can now be jointly operated - including planning, pricing and sales - for New Zealand, the United States and Australia.
Irene King, the former head of Aviation NZ, said this would open up more flight choices from both airlines and a wider range of destinations for travellers. It would attract more international visitors.
"These alliances really are starting to stimulate market opportunities that for a small country like New Zealand we didn't previously have."
She expected that for some routes the deal could provide lower prices for New Zealand travellers.
There was a strong pull for Americans to visit New Zealand, she said, but the distance was a big barrier.
She said shorter flight times would help more Americans visit as they had shorter paid annual leave than New Zealanders.
"Americans want to come to down under and they define down under as Australia and New Zealand bundled together. So that's why it's important to have a point of entry in Auckland and a point of exit say in Sydney, so you can bundle together both destinations."
The joint partnership was attempted three years ago but was rejected in November 2016 by the United States Department of Transportation, on the grounds it threatened to reduce competition. It has now approved the new agreement.
The partners' first move was to introduce new routes from Brisbane to Chicago and Brisbane to San Francisco, starting in April next year. Tere was not yet any indication of any changes to New Zealand flights.