Wellington and Guangzhou Airports Ink MOU, Eye Direct Flights

Wellington Airport (WLG) has signed a memorandum of understanding with Guangzhou Airport (CAN) at the World Routes event in Hong Kong this week with a view to “jointly develop opportunities,” including direct flights between the two airports.

Wellington Airport chief executive Matt Clarke says runway upgrades due for completion in 2026 will allow the airport to accommodate flights to Asia and elsewhere.

“It’s very exciting to have New Zealand’s capital city airport working closely with China’s busiest airport,” he said.

Wellington Airport primarily handles domestic flights but does host some international narrow-body flights operated by Air New Zealand, Qantas, Jetstar, and Fiji Airways. Air New Zealand and Qantas fly to Sydney (SYD), Melbourne (MEL), and Brisbane (BNE) from the airport, while Jetstar flies to the Gold Coast (OOL), and Fiji Airways connects Wellington to Nadi (NAN).

Wellington Airport has a single 2,081-metre paved runway and is adding an engineered materials arresting system (EMAS), which is akin to a gravel trap and extends the usable length of the runway by 130 metres. It is part of an NZD500 million (USD288.5 million) infrastructure upgrade underway at the airport.

The EMAS, which ideally would never get used, will allow Wellington Airport to handle fully loaded wide-bodies such as the B777X and A350-900. Clarke calls it “a fantastic adoption of new technology.”

“It’s really making better use of the safety areas we have,” he previously told New Zealand’s Stuff digital newspaper. “We actually get a more safe outcome in terms of lifting the levels of safety at the runway, and we also get an operational advantage too.”

Guangzhou Airport is home to China Southern Airlines, which already flies year round to Auckland (AKL) and also operates seasonal services to Christchurch (CHC). The airline is busy returning to the Southwest Pacific after scaling back flights during and in the immediate wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Aside from its extensive Australian network, which will include Darwin (DRW) from December, China Southern also flies to Port Moresby (POM) and recently operated some trial flights from that city to Port Vila (VLI) with a view to permanently serving that airport. China Southern Airlines is ultimately owned by the Chinese Government and as such, gets used a vehicle for that country’s slow but steady expansion into the Southwest Pacific region.

“As China's comprehensive gateway-style international aviation hub and a core city of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Guangzhou is committed to building aerial bridges that connect the world,” said Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport Executive Vice President Yaoming Qi this week. “This cooperation will focus on promoting the development of the aviation market between our two regions.”

Guangzhou Airport is China’s busiest and the seventh busiest in the world, handling over 76 million passengers last year. In contrast, Wellington handled just over five million passenger last year.

From a passenger’s perspective, a future China Southern service would offer Wellington residents a handy one stop option to cities across Europe, North America, Africa, and North Asia, and well as the airline’s extensive Chinese domestic network.