Dreamliner engine repair surge expected after checks
Hawaiian Airlines says state open for business
Hawaiian Airlines boss Peter Ingram says the US state is open for business and volcanic activity on the big island of Hawaii is affecting only a fraction of its land area.
There was a misconception that spectacular activity at Kilauea Volcano could affect travel plans, Ingram said.
The airline, which flies to Hilo on Hawaii as part of its island network, had not been affected by the monthlong eruption, which has destroyed scores of houses and forced the evacuation of hundreds.
“For those who have been evacuated from their homes, it’s an absolutely tragic event. Operationally it’s had nil impact — we haven’t cancelled a flight or taken a delay because of the volcano,” he said.
Only about 25sq km was affected directly by the eruption in a corner of the Big Island that covers about 10,400sq km, Ingram said. Long, tall flows of lava had marched from the volcano to the sea.
“I think there is sufficiently poor knowledge of Hawaiian geography around the world. Some people are concerned about what impact it might have on their vacation plans — we’ve been assuring them that the vast majority of the tourism infrastructure in the state is elsewhere.”
Ingram was chief commercial officer for seven years for Hawaiian Rolls-Royce is expecting a surge in the number of Dreamliner engines it needs to fix with the deadline for inspections just passed.
Up to 50 engines could be needing work following checks ordered by United States safety regulators by last weekend in a safety alert that has badly hit a number of airlines, including Air New Zealand.
The airline’s flight schedules have been badly affected because nine of its 11 Boeing 787s have engines subject to inspections of compressors.
A Rolls-Royce spokesman said airlines such as Air New Zealand with a high reliance on Dreamliners with the affected Trent engines had been given priority for repairs if needed.
Engines have been flown to Singapore to replace cracked compressor Airlines before succeeding Mark Dunkerley as chief executive in March.
The island of Hawaii is 321km from the most populous island of Oahu, where the airline has its base.
“Hawaii is open for business. In Oahu we’re watching it on TV like anyone else in the world,” Ingram said on the sideline’s of the International Air Transport Association meeting in Sydney last week.
There had been some short-term impact on bookings to Hilo by visitors who were not making day trips.
However, long-term demand throughout the network remained very robust, including from New Zealand where the airline in March stepped up flights to five times a week. Air New Zealand has also increased capacity during winter.
“By and large demand has risen to meet that capacity which is great,” Ingram said.
Hawaii would face competition from Bali as a holiday destination for Kiwis this winter with Emirates starting daily flights there from Auckland this week and Air New Zealand also increasing its flights.
Ingram said there was overlap between the two places but that Hawaii retained its unique appeal. blades, a job that can take 10 days but also stretch for weeks depending on what else is needed.
The intermediate compressor problems, and earlier turbine blade problems, led to groundings and severe disruption for airlines, including Thai and LATAM which also serve this market.
British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Singapore Airlines’ regional carrier Scoot have also been affected by problems with Trent Package C engines, used by about a quarter of the Dreamliner fleet.
Air New Zealand is gradually getting its repaired engines back into service but will lease two aircraft — which it can crew — to help give it more flexibility through the winter.
Yesterday Portuguese wet lease operator Hi Fly — which supplies aircraft and crew — was to have flown its final Auckland-Honolulu flight for Air New Zealand after supplementing services for three weeks.
One of the next leased planes will be a Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-200ER, which is registered on the New Zealand Civil Aviation register to allow it to be staffed by Air New Zealand pilots and cabin crew.
The Rolls-Royce spokesman said the engines were generally repaired in the order they arrived at the company’s bases in Singapore and Derby, England. “However we do recognise there are some airlines that need certain things in order for them to fly. We’ve been juggling that around a bit to help airlines that are badly affected,” he said.
“Air New Zealand is a good ex- ample of that. We’ve done our best to expedite their engines when we can because we recognise the impact it has on their fleet.”
Rolls has said the cash hit from the Trent problems should reach a peak of £340 million ($648m) in 2018 before falling in 2019.
The cost of the extra inspections would be covered by cutting discretionary spending elsewhere, including cutting travel, training and non-urgent information technology projects, the spokesman said.
Airlines generally buy care packagesallowing settlement if there are problems that ground them. It gets more complicated when there are exceptional costs, such as wet lease fees.
Air New Zealand’s most recently delivered aircraft have Trent 1000 TEN engines that are not affected.