Air NZ leases aircraft to replace gap left by malfunctioning Dreamliners

Air New Zealand has leased two aircraft to help fill the gap left by some of its Dreamliners being out of service for engine maintenance.

An Airbus 330 and Airbus 340 are being chartered from European company Hi Fly, and are expected to start operating some Auckland-Sydney and all Auckland-Perth services by next week.

Last Thursday, Air NZ announced two of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners were out of service after suffering engine trouble.

Two international flights were turned back to New Zealand last week after the engines began to malfunction.

Air NZ has not confirmed what the problems with the two engines are, with the Transport Accident Investigation Commission investigating.

Rolls-Royce, which makes the Trent 1000 engines used by Dreamliners, recalled both engines to do maintenance but it did not have any spare engines available while repairs are undertaken.

Air New Zealand general manager customer experience Anita Hawthorne says the airline is working hard to minimise the impact on customers.

“Unfortunately, 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.”

Customers travelling on the leased aircraft will notice some difference in product and service style, Ms Hawthorne says

“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 widebody aircraft.”

Rolls-Royce has more than 400 of the $US10 million engines in service, and has acknowledged the problems. All Nippon Airways and Virgin Atlantic have suffered similar engine problems with their Dreamliner fleets.

At the company’s half-year results in August, Rolls-Royce warned investors to “expect increased activity in second half related to the Trent 1000 maintenance programme to address a number of technical issues.”

Rolls-Royce spokeswoman Erin Atan says the company anticipates there may be further disruption to the Trent 1000 fleet until the end of 2017, with “steady improvement” until mid-2018.

“It’s not uncommon for long-term engine programmes to experience technical issues during their life and we manage them through proactive maintenance.

“This is the continuation of work that started last year to upgrade Trent 1000 engines to the latest standard. While we began work last year, we have since identified further improvements that need to be made.

“This extra work has led to some issues with availability of engines as we seek to complete this work.”

Air New Zealand has 11 Dreamliners and was the first airline in the world to take delivery of the 787-9 in 2014.

The aircraft are used on Air NZ's international routes including to north and south America, Australia and Samoa.

Air NZ shares last traded at $3.24 and have risen almost 50% in the past 12 months.

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