Direct flights from Christchurch to San Francisco are set to launch this summer.

United Airlines said a new Dreamliner 787 service will start on December 1, flying three times a week for four months.

Christchurch Airport chief executive Justin Watson said the new direct service will get South Islanders to the US on one flight while also responding to Americans’ interest in the South Island.

“The American travel market is buoyant. Americans are travelling widely again and we know they want to experience what the South Island offers.”

He said the new service will “supercharge” tourism value to New Zealand.

“Statistics show American visitors who enter the country through Christchurch Airport spend 42% more in New Zealand and stay 33% longer.

“Based on government data, the seasonal service is forecast to bring in $44 million in visitor spend for New Zealand, with $32 million of that in South Island regions. This is the ideal combination of national value impact and regional economic impact,” he said.

Watson said the service will connect Christchurch, America, and Antarctica.

“We are the world’s southernmost gateway to Antarctica, with the United States Antarctic Programme based here. That brings more than 3000 staff, researchers and supplies from the US every year to Christchurch, and on to Antarctica in our summer.”

United Airlines is also adding four weekly flights between Auckland and Los Angeles, starting from October 28.

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United Airlines says it will be nearly 70% larger in New Zealand than in 2019.

United Airlines has announced a new Christchurch-San Francisco route making it the only airline to offer direct flights between the South Island and the US.

The announcement is part of what the airline calls “the largest South Pacific network expansion ever to and from the continental US”.

The flights to Christchurch from California start on December 1 and United will be flying three times a week on a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner. It is the first ever direct flight between Christchurch and San Francisco.

The airline is also adding new direct flights from Los Angeles to Auckland, as well as increased services to Australia.

The last direct connection between the South Island and the US was Air New Zealand’s service from Christchurch to Los Angeles which ended in 2006.

Patrick Quayle, Senior Vice President of Global Network Planning and Alliances at United, said the airline has been “enhancing” its network over the last few months.

“Our strong partnerships with Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia provide unparalleled connectivity, and with our historic expansion across five destinations in New Zealand and Australia, United is the clear choice for customers’ travel to the region,” said Quayle.

Christchurch Airport welcomed the news, saying on social media: “We’re so excited to announce that from 1 December United will be flying direct from Ōtautahi Christchurch to San Francisco all summer! Operating three times per week on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, you’ll be able to head to destinations across the United States and beyond.”

Currently, flyers from Christchurch need to stop over in either Auckland, Nadi or Sydney for flights to the US.

The airport’s chief executive Justin Watson said the new route will “supercharge” tourism in the region.

“The American travel market is buoyant. Americans are travelling widely again and we know they want to experience what the South Island offers,” said Watson

“Statistics show American visitors who enter the country through Christchurch Airport spend 42% more in New Zealand and stay 33% longer. Based on government data, the seasonal service is forecast to bring in $44 million in visitor spend for New Zealand, with $32 million of that in South Island regions. This is the ideal combination of national value impact and regional economic impact.”

Air New Zealand, which is a Star Alliance partner of United, welcomed the news.

The airline’s Chief Transformation and Alliances Officer Mike Williams said: “We’re thrilled that as part of our long-standing alliance partnership, our friends at United Airlines will be adding two new direct services between the United States and New Zealand in the upcoming northern winter season. This will bring the total number of routes offered by our Alliance to 8, providing unparalleled choice for Kiwis and North American visitors alike.

”Once in Aotearoa, visitors can head around the country seamlessly on our extensive domestic network.

“Our alliance partnership with United allows customers of both airlines to reach all corners of the world. It gives Kiwis the opportunity to connect domestically across the US and beyond, while also bringing more visitors to our shores. We look forward to our strong alliance continuing for many years to come.”

United claims it will have more flights and serve more destinations between the US and Australia and the US and New Zealand than any other carrier in the world.

In January another giant US airline, Delta, confirmed it will start flying to New Zealand for the first time.

It will begin operating a Los Angeles-Auckland service from October 28 using its Airbus A350-900 aircraft.

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Evanston’s city council approved a cash option to its Housing Restorative Program. (Kamil Krzaczynski / AFP/Getty Images / File via CNN)

(CNN) — As a child, Robin Rue Simmons didn’t know the Evanston neighborhood she called home was an area where Black families were once forced to live.

Rue Simmons grew up just north of Chicago in Evanston’s 5th Ward, where banks refused to give mortgage loans to Black families until 1969.

In Evanston, Black people were restricted to a certain portion of the 5th Ward and excluded from other parts of the city.

The area “was disinvested in, stripped of a neighborhood school and access to health care,” Rue Simmons told CNN.

“There were specific anti-black zoning laws and housing practices that are responsible for our racial segregation — not only our physical segregation, but our wealth gaps and home ownership gaps and all other racial gaps that we have here in Evanston,” she said.

Those discriminatory housing policies led Rue Simmons, a former alderwoman, to push for reparations. Under Rue Simmons’ leadership, Evanston became the first city in the United States to pass a reparations resolution in 2019 for Black residents who qualified.

“It is a $25,000 direct benefit to build wealth through home equity,” Rue Simmons said. “Black Residents that lived in Evanston during the period of harm, which was 1919-1969, or their direct descendants are eligible.”

In March 2021, officials voted to release the first batch of funds in that program, and the first recipients were awarded grants in 2022.

Initially, the grants of up to $25,000 were restricted to mortgage assistance, renovations or a down payment on a home. Earlier this month, the Reparations Committee unanimously recommended the inclusion of a fourth option for beneficiaries receiving payment through the housing program: a direct cash payment to beneficiaries.

On Monday night, the Evanston City Council approved a cash option to its Housing Restorative Program. The meeting lasted three hours and it took the council three seconds to approve the cash option. Now, the program includes direct cash benefits for those who qualify.

There was no discussion because it was listed on the consent agenda. Council member Devon Reid told CNN by phone after the vote, “the items on the consent agenda are non-controversial items.”

At the end of the meeting, Reid appeared via Zoom with his camera off and spoke about the change.

“I just want to highlight how special Evanston is. Tonight, we passed what I believe is a historic amendment to our reparations program. It was just on the consent agenda and there’s no fuss, no folks coming out, you know protesting. No dissent amongst the council,” Reid said.

He added this will allow Evanston to move forward swiftly.

“This will allow us to get funding to our ancestors in a much more expedient fashion. We will be able to get that money out to folks and be able to provide some repair to our Black community and to the harmed community who has suffered from uh housing discrimination,” Reid said.

So far, the city has only spent $326,836 of the $10 million promised.

Tasheik Kerr, an assistant to the city manager, told CNN 124 people are still on a waiting list to receive money. Six who were eligible died before receiving payment.

Overall, Kerr said 650 residents have applied. The city is still sorting through applications and at least six people who qualified have died while waiting for their grant.

“We have stalled because of complications,” Rue Simmons said. “It has taken longer than we expected. And some of those challenges have been really underestimating, operationally, the work.”

From Asheville, North Carolina, to Detroit, Michigan, cities across the country are trying to repair harms caused by institutional racism. In San Francisco, a reparations committee is seeking payments proposed of $5 million to every eligible Black resident. A final report that includes board feedback is due in June, according to the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee.

The complications Evanston has seen with funding and distributing funds will come up across the US, Rue Simmons said. “We’ve had challenges, but we have found solutions,” she said. Those struggles were highlighted in the 2023 documentary “The Big Payback,” by Erika Alexander and Whitney Dow.

Funding for a repair of this magnitude is a tough hurdle to clear, Rue Simmons said. While she and her team worked on reparations in Evanston, the state of Illinois approved recreational marijuana, which went into effect in 2020 — and that provided the initial funding for Evanston’s reparations initiative.

“It is one thing to identify a harm and prescribe a remedy,” Rue Simmons said. “In the case of Evanston …we have been led to understand and appreciate that home rule taxes are our most viable way to fund reparations being that they’re within our purview.”

Some recipients hesitant about cash option

Ramona Burton is among the 14 people who have received the $25,000 grant so far. The 74-year-old woman has lived in Evanston her entire life but was born in Chicago. Back then, the city didn’t allow “the birth of Black” babies in certain hospitals, she said.

Burton said she used the money to purchase a new roof, install eight new windows and a privacy fence, as well as repair her chimney.

“I wasn’t planning on buying a new home at my age and my home is paid off. So, I used it for renovations,” the 74-year-old told CNN. “I was so excited when I found out. We didn’t get the money in our hands. We never see the money. The city paid the contractors for the work.”

That’s what 88-year-old Louis Weathers, another grant recipient, said he wants to remain in place. He is not in favor of the cash option the council approved Monday.

“I don’t think they should do that. They should have some stipulations that will help the city in housing. Something that will help the value of my property stay stable or go up,” he said. “Giving people cash isn’t a good idea unless you put it in a trust, and you can only get so much each year.”

Kimberly Holmes-Ross is among 124 approved residents but is still waiting to begin her project.

Her father, she said, migrated to Evanston from the South following the Korean War. Like Rue Simmons, she was raised in the 5th Ward with her parents but has since moved to the city’s 2nd Ward.

“My parents weren’t even shown houses in this ward in 1962 — everything was over in the 5th Ward. That is what they were shown and allowed to buy,” she said, standing in the neat yard of her home. “We’re looking to either build another house or add on to our garage.”

Holmes-Ross expressed some hesitation about the cash option and said there must be checks and balances.

“I hope it doesn’t stray too far from the original plan, where they could prove the harm. The harm was in housing and in redlining,” she said.

The-CNN-Wire & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

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Air New Zealand has resumed flights between Auckland and San Francisco and announced firm restart dates to Honolulu and Houston. With the airline already flying back to Los Angeles and launching its long-awaited nonstop services to New York and Chicago later this year, New Zealand’s national carrier will be operating to six US cities by the end of October.

Air New Zealand’s SFO flights resume

On Thursday, Air New Zealand pushed back its first regular passenger service to San Francisco in a long time. NZ8 is now departing Auckland (AKL) at 19:50 local time every Thursday, Saturday, and Tuesday for the 12-hour flight across the Pacific to San Francisco (SFO), landing there at 12:50 local time on the same day.

SIMPLE FLYING VIDEO OF THE DAY

After half a day on the ground in SFO, the same plane turns around to operate NZ7 back to Auckland, departing San Francisco at 22:05 every Thursday, Saturday, and Tuesday for the run down to AKL, touching down in New Zealand’s biggest city at 06:10 two days later. All of Air New Zealand’s US services are serviced by its three-class Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.

Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners operate all the airline’s US flights. Photo: Getty Images

Air New Zealand reboots its US network as New Zealand reopens

After beginning to let fully vaccinated Kiwis return home earlier this year and raising the border gates to fully vaccinated Australians this week, New Zealand will reopen to fully vaccinated travelers from its long list of visa waiver countries (including the US) on May 1, and barring any further hiccups, will reopen to travelers from anywhere in October – subject to New Zealand’s normal entry requirements. Also from May 1, Air New Zealand will end its current no jab, no-fly vaccination policy for international passengers.

“Recommencing services across our North America routes as the border reopens is another step towards the gradual resumption of flights to destinations across our international network,” says Leanne Geraghty, Chief Customer and Sales Officer at Air New Zealand.

In more aviation news, Houston (IAH) will see Air New Zealand flights resume on Thursday, July 7. NZ28 will leave Auckland at 21:55 local time every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday and make the 13-and-a-half- hour flight across to the Texan city, landing in Houston at 4:20 p.m. local time on the same day. Later that day, Air New Zealand’s Dreamliner will depart Houston at 21:55 to make the 15-hour trek back to AKL, landing there at 05:55 two days later – just in time for breakfast.

Air New Zealand’s US network at the end of 2022. Image: gcmap.com

The best US network of any Southwest Pacific airline

On Tuesday, July 12, Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787-9s will also restart services to Honolulu (HNL). NZ10 will leave Auckland at 21:55 every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday to fly the leisurely eight-and-a-half-hour hop up to Honolulu, landing there at 08:30 local time on the same day. After a fairly nearly 90-minute turnaround, NZ9 will leave HNL every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday at 10:00 and hustle back to Auckland, landing at 17:00 the following day.

Air New Zealand’s thrice-weekly Dreamliner flights to New York JFK start on September 17 and provide the only nonstop flights between any Southwest Pacific city and the biggest city in the US. The same can be said for Air New Zealand’s flights between Auckland and Chicago (ORD), slated to start on October 30. Alongside the existing flights between Auckland and Los Angeles, that’s a tidy six cities in the US Air New Zealand will fly to by the years’ end – easily the best US network of any airline from the Southwest Pacific.

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