A historic and unprecedented route, at least for Argentina, began on December 4th, 2025, connecting three different continents.

On December 4th at 02:19 local time, one of China Eastern Airlines Boeing 777-300 aircraft departed Shanghai Pudong International Airport to Auckland, operating scheduled flight MU745. The airline has been offering the Shanghai-Auckland route since December 2014, with the Chinese city being one of its current four destinations performed to/from AKL, including Hangzhou, Sydney, Shanghai, and now Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires is the latest addition, resulting from an agreement with Auckland Airport, which encouraged the re-establishment of flights between New Zealand and Argentina.

Aerolíneas Argentinas

The history of Argentina and its flights to Oceania started in the 1970s, with special operations by the Argentine Air Force using Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft, being in December 1973 the first flight between Argentina and New Zealand with a stopover at Marambio Base, an Argentine base in Antarctica.

Aerolíneas Argentinas was the first airline to launch commercial flights to Oceania from Argentina, commencing on June 7th, 1980, with Boeing 747-200 aircraft. Due to wind conditions on the eastbound-westbound route, the Buenos Aires-Auckland leg included a technical stop in Río Gallegos, in Argentine Patagonia, which was maintained throughout all operations using the 747. The Auckland-Buenos Aires segment was always non-stop.

The Argentine flag carrier was the only airline operating flights in the Latin America-Oceania market until the mid-1990s, when Qantas began services between Sydney and Buenos Aires via Auckland on Boeing 747-400 aircraft. This stopover in Auckland was short-lived, as non-stop flights commenced by late 1990s.

LAN

LAN Chile, now known as LATAM Airlines, entered the Latin America-Oceania market in 2001 after adding its first Airbus A340-300 to its fleet. The arrival of these aircraft permitted the launch of the Santiago de Chile – Auckland – Sydney route and vice versa, which operated through late October 2025. Currently, it offers the Santiago – Auckland – Santiago and Santiago – Sydney – Santiago routes, in addition to the Santiago – Melbourne – Santiago route, all with Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

Qantas

Due to Argentina’s delicate political, economic, and social situation, Qantas suspended its flights to Buenos Aires in 2001, resuming them in August 2008 and once again ceasing them on March 24th, 2012. The following day, the Australian airline launched its services between Sydney and Santiago de Chile, also with Boeing 747-400(ER) aircraft. Under an agreement with LAN, Chile’s leading airline and at that time part of Oneworld, Qantas replaced Buenos Aires with Santiago de Chile as its sole destination in Latin America.

For its part, Aerolíneas Argentinas continued to operate between Argentina and Oceania, although in 2012 it also reduced its presence on the continent by permanently ceasing operations in Auckland.

By mid-1999, the Argentine state-own airline incorporated its first Airbus A340-200s, which enabled it to launch non-stop flights between Buenos Aires and Oceania. The first A340 service on this connection took place in late 1999.

Argentina losing connectivity

Aerolíneas Argentinas remained the sole operator in the Argentina-Oceania market after Qantas’ cease, with three weekly flights on the Buenos Aires – Sydney – Buenos Aires route using 249-seat Airbus A340-200 aircraft. However, the Argentine airline followed in the footsteps of its Australian counterpart just two years later.

On April 1st, 2014, Aerolíneas Argentinas’ last flight from Sydney Kingsford International Airport landed at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires, at least until now. The Airbus A340-211 with registration LV-ZPO arrived with 214 passengers on board, an 86% occupancy rate.

Aerolíneas Argentinas bid farewell to this market following almost 34 years of uninterrupted operations. During 2020, the company operated a few flights between Buenos Aires and Shanghai via Auckland and vice versa in search of COVID-19 vaccines, but it never returned with regular flights.

Air New Zealand

Just a few months after Aerolíneas Argentinas’ exit, Air New Zealand made a historic announcement, both for the airline and for Latin America: the launch of its first regular destination in the Americas beyond the United States and Canada.

The Star Alliance member inaugurated its flights between Auckland and Buenos Aires on December 1st, 2015, conducting three weekly frequencies by 312-seat Boeing 777-200(ER) aircraft. The announcement had been made in December 2014, and ticket sales had begun in March 2015.

Air New Zealand had high occupancy rates from the start, reaching its peak during the 2018/2019 South American summer, offering up to six flights per week. It operated mainly with Boeing 777-200(ER) and Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft seating 302 passengers, and some sporadic flights with Boeing 777-300(ER) aircraft.

In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Air New Zealand announced the suspension of some of its long-haul routes, including Auckland – Buenos Aires. At first, this was supposed to be a temporary suspension, but flights to Buenos Aires were permanently discontinued, marking the end of Air New Zealand’s service to Latin America.

Argentina was once again without a non-stop connection to Oceania, while Chile had an important network of routes to Australia and New Zealand operated by LATAM, in addition to Qantas flights from Sydney.

China Eastern Airlines

In June 2025, Auckland Airport published a press release on its website about the launch of a new regular route between China and South America through Auckland, operated by a Chinese airline.

The article mentioned the possibility of restoring flights between New Zealand and Argentina, with a route that would not start or end in either of these two countries, as the entire journey would be Shanghai – Auckland – Buenos Aires and vice versa, performed by the SkyTeam member China Eastern Airlines.

All necessary authorizations and procedures between the three countries, as well as with the airline, progressed successfully, with ticket sales beginning on September 2nd and the inaugural flight scheduled to operate on December 4th. 

Everything went according to plan, with China Eastern Airlines’ inaugural flight from Shanghai via Auckland arriving in Buenos Aires on December 4th at 16:45 local time.

The inaugural flight

More than 25 hours earlier, but on the same day, at 02:19 local time on December 4th, China Eastern Airlines’ Boeing 777-39P(ER), registration B-7882, took off from Pudong International Airport bound for Auckland, where it arrived at 18:12 local time after a flight of 10 hours and 53 minutes.

At 21:22 local time, three hours later, the same plane took off for Buenos Aires, marking the beginning of a new era. The aircraft had 280 passengers on board, an 88% occupancy rate, as China Eastern’s 777-300(ER) aircraft are configured with 6 seats in Business, 52 seats in Premium Economy, and 258 seats in Economy, for a total of 316 seats.

PVG-AKL-EZE, the world’s longest route

After 25 hours and 5 minutes, the Boeing 777 landed in Buenos Aires from Shanghai via Auckland, thus becoming the world’s longest commercial flight, covering almost 20,000 kilometers.

The Shanghai – Auckland leg takes around 11 hours and covers approximately 9,300 kilometers, while the Auckland – Buenos Aires leg takes over 11 hours and covers more than 10,000 kilometers. Considering the stopover in Auckland, the entire flight will take over 25 hours, meaning passengers will spend nearly a day on the plane. Apparently, passengers must disembark in Auckland during the stopover on both legs of the journey.

Due to winds, the Buenos Aires-Auckland–Shanghai flight will be longer, with the first leg (EZE–AKL) taking 13 hours and the next leg (AKL–PVG) another 12 hours, for a total flight time of over 28 hours.

Schedule

Shanghai – Auckland – Buenos Aires

Monday

• MU 745  Shanghai PVG 02:00 · 18:30 AKL Auckland
• MU 745  Auckland AKL 20:30 · 16:30 EZE Buenos Aires

Thursday

• MU 745  Shanghai PVG 02:00 · 18:30 AKL Auckland
• MU 745  Auckland AKL 20:55 · 16:55 EZE Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires – Auckland – Shanghai

Tuesday and Friday

• MU 746  Buenos Aires EZE 02:00 · 08:40+1 AKL Auckland
• MU 746  Auckland AKL 10:40+1 · 18:00+1 PVG Shanghai

Buenos Aires is once again the only Latin American city connected to all continents.

Currently, Dubai and Shanghai are its connections in Asia, Addis Ababa in Africa, and several cities in Europe, North America, and South America. Routes to Asia and Africa, as well as some to Europe, are operated with stopovers, offering different international airlines fifth freedom flights to/from Buenos Aires.

The fifth freedom flights operating in Argentina are the following:

• Addis Ababa – São Paulo – Buenos Aires, Ethiopian Airlines
• Amsterdam – Buenos Aires – Santiago de Chile, KLM
• Dubai – Rio de Janeiro – Buenos Aires, Emirates
• Istanbul – São Paulo – Buenos Aires, Turkish Airlines
• London – Rio de Janeiro – Buenos Aires, British Airways
• Shanghai – Auckland – Buenos Aires, China Eastern
• Toronto – São Paulo – Buenos Aires, Air Canada
• Zurich – São Paulo – Buenos Aires, Swiss International Air Lines

China Eastern is the first Chinese carrier to operate regular flights to Buenos Aires.

Cover photo: © Pe0ny – JetPhotos (Beijing, China)