Hired planes to help out Air NZ
Air New Zealand has leased two aircraft from a Portuguese charter company to help keep its timetable after Dreamliner engine problems forced unscheduled maintenance.
The Airbus 330 and Airbus 340, being chartered from Hi Fly, are expected to begin operating some Auckland-Sydney and all AucklandPerth services by next week.
Air NZ general manager customer experience Anita Hawthorne said it was working hard to minimise the impact on customers caused by the Rolls-Royce engine issues.
Two flights were affected last week after problems with turbine blades in the Trent 1000 engines which are being replaced on Dreamliners around the world. One Tokyo-bound flight had to shut its engine down after it was damaged.
Hawthorne said about 4500 customers had been affected by international flight delays and cancellations over the past week.
“Once these two additional aircraft are in service we will be able to operate a near-normal timetable.”
“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,” she said.
“Equally, it is a critical time of year for our cargo customers.”
Hawthorne says customers travelling on the leased aircraft would notice some difference.
Hi Fly owns 20 aircraft and they are available under “wet lease” deals under which it supplies crew, maintenance and insurance. Hawthorne said the aircraft would operate 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 widebody aircraft,” Hawthorne said.
“Air New Zealand’s union partners have been extremely understanding.”
E tu aviation spokesman Kelvin Ellis said the union was working closely with the airline to protect staff affected. There were about 600 cabin crew on board Dreamliners.
While he couldn’t comment on the problem with the engines, he said the airline had handled the issue well.