Trust scrambles to bring Airnz’s last 747 home
A charitable trust is in a race against time to save Air New Zealand’s last 747, with plans to bring it back to Aotearoa and transform it into a hotel.
The trust will also ask Iron Maiden star and aviation fan Bruce Dickinson to fly the plane to New Zealand.
This particular 747 entered service with Air New Zealand when it was brand new, back in 1998, and was the last Queen of the Skies to leave the airline in 2014. It famously sported the Lord of the Rings livery from 2002 to 2004.
Since then, the plane was bought by Spanish charter company
Wamos Air – which leased the aircraft to Saudi Arabian Airlines, and Garuda Indonesia among others.
Now, the plane is due for its ‘‘D check’’ (a heavy maintenance visit) and sits atmadrid’s Ciudad Real Central Airport facing an uncertain future.
The operator has decided the ‘‘D Check’’ is too costly, so intends to sell the plane or send it to a scrapyard in New Mexico.
The New Zealand aviation group ‘‘Bring Our Birds Home’’ (BOBH) has long been interested in repatriating the jet – but its imminent retirement thanks to Covid-19 has meant the project has taken on a new urgency. ‘‘We need to come together as soon as possible with some sort of deal,’’ says BOBH founder Paul Brennan.
The jet is expected to cost ‘‘well south of $2 million’’, and the trust is ‘‘about 10 per cent of the way there’’.
The plan is to try to save the plane while it is still airworthy and fly it to New Zealand, Brennan says. When it gets here, the frontrunner in a long list of ideas is to convert it to a hotel at Wa¯naka Airport with airconditioned pods in the main economy cabin.
The main focus at the moment is ‘‘trying to interest people in the business opportunity because if we can get that done, we can save the plane’’.
If they can’t raise enough through investors, BOBH would look at a public campaign – similar to the one to buy Awaroa Beach – which raised more than $2m to buy a piece of land in Abel Tasman National Park and return it to public ownership.
If the aircraft can’t be secured early next year, it will be sent to New Mexico to be scrapped, but Brennan says the fight won’t be over.
‘‘That’s not a huge showstopper, because even a scrapped airframe is salvageable and can be put together as a display item again.
‘‘The preference is to get it while it’s still operational with a thousand or so hours [of flying time] it has left before it has its major check.’’
Brennan says the plane is a classic piece of New Zealand history. ‘‘At least 2million Kiwis flew in that particular aircraft, and most of them were probably doing their OE, or something interesting that Kiwis do. So that aircraft holds a lot of stories. It’s been a great workhorse for our country.’’
Brennan is asking for anyone who may want to support the business side of the venture to get in touch – he believes this will be the quickest way to get enough cash needed.
The Bring Our Birds Home campaign is trying to bring back six New Zealand aircraft – including the 747 – currently in varying states of decay around the world.
The group has so far raised more than $26,000 for their overall campaign – and are yet to decide if they will launch a 747 specific appeal for funds.
Once the 747 is secure, Brennan says ‘‘we’re putting out our feelers to Bruce Dickinson, who is the lead singer of Iron Maiden. He is a 747 captain, and we’re going to offer him to fly the thing out here.’’