Air NZ rents Airbus planes, crew
Air New Zealand has leased two aircraft with crew to help keep flights on schedule, despite problems with some of its planes’ engines.
Two Air New Zealand flights using its 787-9 fleet, one to Tokyo and one to Buenos Aires, had to return to Auckland Airport last week after experiencing engine problems soon after takeoff.
They encountered ‘‘abnormal indications’’ during the climb out of Auckland and returned to base.
Passengers reported hearing ‘‘clunking’’ and feeling severe vibrations. The aircraft landed safely but have since had to go into unscheduled maintenance.
The airline has not commented on the specific issues, but confirmed they related to Rolls-Royce engines and said that the engine manufacturer had advised that some of the Trent 1000 engines would need maintenance sooner than previously indicated.
It had been consolidating flights while the planes were worked on.
The Airbus 330 and Airbus 340 are being chartered from European company Hi Fly. They are expected to begin operating some Auckland-Sydney and all Auckland-Perth services by next week.
Air New Zealand’s general manager of customer experience, Anita Hawthorne, said the airline was working to minimise the impact on customers.
‘‘Unfortunately, around 4500 customers have been affected by international flight delays and a small number of cancellations over the past week.
‘‘Once these two additional aircraft are in service we will be able to operate a near normal timetable,’’ she said.
‘‘We are acutely mindful of how important travel is to so many of our customers at this time of year and we are committed to ensuring we connect people with family, friends and the experiences they are looking forward to.
‘‘Equally, it is a critical time of year for our cargo customers, so giving them certainty to be able to continue to move goods internationally is important.’’
Hawthorne said customers travelling on the leased aircraft will notice the difference.
‘‘The aircraft will be operated by pilots and crew from Hi Fly under the oversight of Air New Zealand.
‘‘This was a much quicker path to get the aircraft into our network than going through a lengthy certification and training programme for our own people, who are not trained to operate the Airbus wide-body aircraft.
‘‘Air New Zealand’s union partners have been extremely understanding of this situation and share our commitment to take the necessary steps to maintain the flight schedule over this important Christmas and summer period. We thank them for their support.’’