American Airlines to Australia & B777-300ER Sydney Flyover

[D Chan]

I think this is a good announcement for a few reasons and is a win-win for both airlines:
- AA wants to fly to Australia - tick
- The AA product (apart from economy) on the 77W is fairly decent - tick
- QF wants to re-enter the SFO market (now that the DFW route is established) which is good for corporate accounts (and ensures UA doesn't have the route all by itself) - tick
- Adds more competition / pressure to UA and DL - tick

Personally I think re-entering SFO is a good sign - it might even end up as the first 787 route for QF (maybe I'm reading a bit too much into it)

I think LAX-AKL for AA will happen in probably for late 2015 / early 2016.. maybe with the 787.. that should provide some much needed competition to NZ

[Jarden S]

American Airlines plans Auckland-Los Angeles flights

http://www.ausbt.com.au/american-air...ngeles-flights

They are getting 789's soon so could deploy them to NZ

[James Smith]

Oh how QANTAS could use the 787-9 on the pacific. With a range of 8,300 nm it could fly Sydney - Chicago, another major American Airlines hub with upper east coast connections. QANTAS announced some years ago that they were going to commence services from Melbourne to Chicago via LA but didn't proceed, possibly due to a global financial downturn at the time. So, Chicago has been on their radar.

The 787-9 couldn't reach New York from Sydney but it could from Auckland. Sydney to New York via Auckland with connections from other cities in Auckland would throw the cat amongst the pigeons. In fact it looks as though the 787-9 can reach any mainland US city from Auckland. There are so many possibilities, if they only had the aircraft.

Hopefully, QANTAS will place their 787-9 order this year.

[Arthur T]

If there's such a range and market, I think NZ will be the first to launch AKL-EWR already with their B789s.

NZ just need to adjust its departing time to minimise connection at Auckland, plus make sure it has a VA number to it then it will make an even bigger catchment than Qantas in Australia.

[Justin L]

Does NZ's codeshare agreement with VA extend beyond trans-Tasman thought? Wouldn't trans-Pacific codeshares conflict with VA's arrangement with DL?

[James Smith]

Does anyone know the proposed arrival and departure times for the American Airlines flights into Sydney? Hopefully, they won't depart at 09:50 as QF, UA & VA all do now to LAX. Too much later in the day limits onwards flights within the US, particularly to the east coast but departure from 12:00 to 13:00 would still give those connections arriving around 09:00 into LAX, a 3 hour minimum connection and around 21:00 arriving in the east coast.

Arrival in SYD will probably be soon after the curfew is lifted to obtain a slot. We shall see.

[Tom Lohdan]

It's the same as QF times I believe, as QF is dropping some LAX flights to free up aircraft for the relaunch of SYD-SFO.

Schedules should be loaded this weekend (Sunday/Monday) if we are lucky.

UA retimed their SYD flights to give people more time to connect when they went 777 and dropped the MEL tag.

I would rather a late afternoon/night SYD departure so you don't miss a day of work and avoid the morning rush at customs/immigration at LAX.

Last UA flight LAX-JFK is around 8:30pm arriving at 2:30am. Which I've taken many times after booking a day room at the LAX Hilton and visiting the South Bay area.

[Alex Lui]

From Australian Business Traveller:

SYD-LAX schedule, on sale from 27 July 2015

AA73 LAX-SYD 2150 - 0755+2
AA72 SYD-LAX 1200 - 0650

Alex.

[Kurt A]

B777-300ER Sydney Flyover

Hi all, an American Airlines B777-300ER will do a Sydney flyover on Friday 13th November.

The current flight path takes the aircraft on a route from east to west flying over the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Traffic permitting, the aircraft will then make a 180 degree left turn around and come back west to east before heading to Sydney Airport.

Flying at 1800 feet. Slated for 8.15am.

Of course, (as Luke Chittock would say), usual disclaimers in place.... it may change or not take place at all .

[Rowan McKeever]

If my powers of deduction are playing, AA's 77W visit on Friday morning should be N734AR.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N734AR
http://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/aa137/