United Airlines inaugurated direct services between Los Angeles and Melbourne in late October 2014 utilising Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners on the daily service linking the two countries. Most of the time the UAL98/99 track sees the flight pass well outside of NZ airspace making the most of apparent winds and weather conditions. However 14 March was a little different for the northbound leg (UAL99) with Dreamliner N19951 taking a much more easterly route before bending northeast towards its destination and Flightradar24 cleared tracked the aircraft as it crossed over the northern region of New Zealand crossing the western coastline just north of Dargaville at 1909 local time cruising at 35000ft and then exiting over the east coast at Ngunguru, northeast of Whangarei, a mere 5 minutes later. Obviously the normal route to be taken was partially obscured by Tropical Cyclone "Pam" churning south.
Sadly cloud cover in the area precluded locals from spotting this possible first time overfly.
NZ airspace is often crossed by the scheduled Qantas Boeing 747-400 service from Sydney to Santiago and back with the flight crossing anywhere from a line Wanganui-Napier to the South Island's southern extremities, again making the most of prevailing weather conditions to assist with propelling it to its destination in the most expeditious manner.
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| File photo - the first United Airlines Boeing 787-9 flight UAL98 arriving at Melbourne from Los Angeles in October 2014. |
