Tonight, just after 8pm, a special flight will take to the skies.

An Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300 — laden with 300 Warriors fans, in fancy dress and bearing the hope and optimism of pre-season — will depart Auckland International Airport, headed for Las Vegas.

If Sunday’s NRL season opener is a new frontier for the Warriors club, it’s also something of a milestone for the national carrier.

It’s one of Air NZ’s most ambitious charter projects of the past decade and its first major international charter since the post-Covid restart.

“It’s not a port we fly to at all,” explained Air New Zealand Warriors' relationship manager Duane Perrott.

“So you essentially have to treat it as though you’re starting up a new port and that’s quite an involved process. We’ve flown into Vegas before, but that was quite a few years ago [2012] so any contacts that we had [there] had gone, so you’ve got to start up from scratch.”

The logistical list is long. Everything from catering to cleaning, baggage handling and check-in (for the return journey). Pilots need to learn about a new airport and there are additional demands from the United States administration on airlines making a one-off journey.

There’s also extra security required — “that’s part of operating to a non-standard port” — while four Air New Zealand staffers will be on the plane to oversee the whole process.

It’s a significant piece of work — but worth the stretch, given the reception in the market, with the packages, which started from $5000, selling out.

“We probably gave ourselves a couple of months to sell it if we’re realistic,” recalled Perrott of the deal, which includes return direct flights, five nights accommodation, and match tickets.

“I don’t think anyone expected it would go quite as well as it did.”

Perrott, who was a long time head of Grabaseat, vividly remembers the morning it went on sale.

"We have the total number of packages up on the site and it deducts every time there’s a sale made — 300 down to 299, 298 etc. It was like one of those slot machines in Vegas — it was ticking over so fast. The numbers just went down, down, down, and we had to double-check to make sure the system was working properly.”

It was — reflecting the fanatical support the Warriors can engender. The charter idea was first suggested internally in October 2023, when the Warriors were mooted as a possibility for the first Vegas edition last March.

“It’s been brewing for some time,” said Perrott.

Even though it was ambitious — with a relatively high price point — Perrott was confident of the demand. “There’s a huge amount of excitement because Las Vegas just carries that [aura],” says Perrott.

“It’s a place to be and a place to go. We know a lot of customers end up in Vegas through our North American flights that we’ve got. So if you can take them straight in there, on a direct service, then you’re ticking a box of not having to go through one of our ports.”

“You can see the hype with the demand there last year and how many Kiwis went without the Warriors being in there. There was so much talk around it, it built up the demand before we put it on sale and then boom, off it went.”

For the flight — named NZ 1995 in recognition of the Warriors’ foundation year — Air New Zealand is using an aircraft that usually navigates the twice daily Auckland-Los Angeles route.

“We’re taking one of those services and moving it to Las Vegas,” said Perrott.

“It will offload passengers and their baggage and then it will position down to Los Angeles and pick up the standard normal service. Then it is basically reversed coming back. So we’re not interrupting any of our normal standard flying.”

Perrott, who has been at Air New Zealand since 2005, is a veteran of domestic and international charters. He recalls taking All Blacks fans to Buenos Aires for test matches, the Grabaseat fifth birthday celebration flight to Las Vegas (2011), another exclusive flight for Liverpool supporters to watch their team at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and taking two 747’s to the Warriors’ last NRL grand final appearance in 2011.

“That was a pretty exciting time”, said Perrott. But you sense Perrott, who has also been the Warriors’ liaison at Air New Zealand for almost 20 years, feels this could be the best one yet.

“These flights are always special,” says Perrott.

“It’s that group mentality — the whole flight going to one place for the same purpose. We’ve asked everyone to turn up in the Warriors kit and it’s just not your standard flight, where you’ve got businesspeople and other travellers.

“You’re all going for the same reason, for the same purpose, and you’re all fans. So it just creates this energy that’s like no other. And this one is quite unique and different, so we want to make it memorable for them.”

Perrott is promising special guests on the flight, competitions, giveaways and “other surprises” on the journey, as well as activations at the check-in, including an Elvis impersonator.

It’s hoped this could be the start of many more sporting and entertainment charters.

“It’s something we would like to do going forward — if time and aircraft space permits,” said Perrott.

“We know there is a demand there so how do we find the right fit, that works for the business and works for the customer.”

And who knows — maybe this journey could be a test run for a regular Las Vegas service in the future.

Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics’, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. A football aficionado, Burgess will never forget the noise that greeted Rory Fallon’s goal against Bahrain in Wellington in 2009.