Tourism reputation unhurt by fleet woes
Problems with Rolls-Royce engines on Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787-9 fleet are unlikely to cause any long-term damage to the reputation of the airline or New Zealand as a tourist destination.
Investors agreed, as Air New Zealand’s share price was little changed by the week’s events.
The airline has said it does not expect the issue to affect its annual financial result.
Two Air New Zealand flights, one to Toyko and one to Buenos Aires, had to return to Auckland Airport this week after experiencing engine problems soon after take-off.
The airline has not commented on the specific issues, but confirmed they related to the RollsRoyce engines and said the engine manufacturer had advised that some of the Trent 1000 engines would need maintenance sooner than previously indicated.
Air New Zealand said RollsRoyce did not have replacement engines available while the maintenance was carried out, meaning some flights would be postponed or cancelled.
The Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) is investigating both incidents, noting that both aircraft landed safely and nobody was injured.
Industry sources would not talk on the record, citing the TAIC investigation, but none believed any long-term damage would be done to Air New Zealand’s reputation.
All said the airline had taken precautionary measures to ensure passenger and crew safety.
A New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association (NZALPA) spokeswoman said its technical specialists were helping TAIC with its investigation.
Similarly, Kelvin Ellis, from the E tu¯ union, would not discuss specifics but said the issues with the Trent 1000 were known globally and that Air New Zealand was ‘‘taking it incredibly seriously’’.
"This won’t hurt long term."
House of Travel commercial director Brent Thomas
House of Travel commercial director Brent Thomas said the postponed or cancelled flights were not just an issue for the airline, but flowed through to hotels, car rentals and other travel arrangements.
With school holidays kicking off and Christmas near, he urged would-be travellers to contact airlines or their travel agents as soon as possible to make alternative arrangements.
Seats were still available on international flights but ‘‘despite having 29 airlines flying [to Auckland], they’re amazingly full’’.
He said travel insurance was likely to kick in if flight changes were out of the passenger’s control but that issues were still being worked through.
‘‘This won’t hurt [reputations] long term. It’s an inconvenience but not a branding risk for NZ Inc. Most people realise that Air New Zealand is just taking a very responsible position in terms of customer safety and in the longterm that reflects well on them,’’ Thomas said.
He said continued regular communication would be key to keeping affected customers onside.
Rolls-Royce, also not commenting on specifics of the two incidents, said it regretted any disruption caused.
‘‘It’s not uncommon for longterm engine programmes to experience technical issues during their life and we manage them through proactive maintenance,’’ a spokesperson said.
‘‘We have a clear service management plan in place with operators to undertake this work and minimise disruption. This is the continuation of work which started last year to upgrade Trent 1000 engines.’’
The spokesperson would comment on the details of service plan. not the