Carry on: Emirates queries Rolls-Royce engines, Fiji's new 737s and more

The controversy over new-generation jet engines has escalated with Emirates Airline saying it has unspecified technical issues with Rolls-Royce Trent-powered engines for the latest version of the AirbusA380, which has been introduced to the Christchurch-Dubai service. Emirates president Tim Clark said in Berlin that these issues needed to be ironed out.

"We want the engines as prescribed in the contract," he said, without elaborating. Emirates has orders for 55 A380s worth $US112 billion and is due to receive its first powered by Rolls-Royce engines on December 2. The rest of Emirates’ A380 fleet uses Engine Alliance, a joint venture between General Electric and Pratt & Whitney.

Earlier this year, Airbus dropped plans to use Pratt & Whitney’s new generation PurePower engines on the maiden flight of the A321neo (new engine option). Instead, Airbus installed LEAP-1B engines supplied by CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric and France’s Safran.

Qatar Airlines rejected the PurePower engines on its A320neo orders, saying it had performance problems in the hot Gulf climate. The airline even threatened to quit the order and switch to Boeing’s new 737 MAX.

Fiji places Boeing MAX order

Fiji Airways has opted for Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, pictured in an artist’s rendering, to replace its existing fleet of five 737s for use on its short- and medium-haul network to destinations including Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The first two of the five on order will arrive in 2018, with the remaining three arriving in 2019. They will be powered by the LEAP-1B engines.

A350-1000's maiden flights
Airbus has begun tests of its new A350-1000, a stretched version of the standard A350 and which is due to start service in the second half of 2017. The three test aircraft are equipped with two Trent XWB motors from Rolls-Royce. The aircraft seats 366 passengers and has a range of 9000 miles (14,600km). Its catalogue price is $US355 million and will first be used commercially by Singapore Airlines on a resumption of a non-stop Singapore-New York service.

Expanded codeshares
The German affiliate of Etihad, Airberlin, has expanded codeshare partnership with Virgin Australia to transtasman services from Brisbane to Auckland,
 Christchurch
 Dunedin,
 Queenstown 
and Wellington; from Melbourne to Auckland
 and Christchurch; and
 Sydney to Auckland,
 Christchurch 
and Queenstown.

Emirates is expanding its codeshare arrangements with Malaysia Airlines and JetBlue Airways in the US. The Malaysia services are from 
Kuala Lumpur to Bandar Seri Begawan,
 Bangkok, Medan, Namu
, Osaka Kansai, Phuket 
and Tokyo Narita. The JetBlue services are to 26 destinations from Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

Route news of the week
Korean Air is boosting its Seoul Incheon-Auckland service in December and January. The extra flight will operate as a charter with Boeing 777-300ER aircraft between December 21 and February 2, 2017. Qatar Airways has increased the daily capacity of its Doha-Cape Town service with the introduction of a Boeing 777 to replace a Boeing 787. Qatar began a non-stop daily service to Cape Town in October 2015 after earlier extending flights from Johannesburg. Lufthansa and Air France have both converted their Cape Town operations to year-round instead of northern winter only. Lufthansa will operate Frankfurt-Cape Town three times a week with an A340-300. Air France will also operate Paris CDG-Cape Town three times using an A330-200. Lufthansahas switched to an Airbus A350-900XWB on its Munich-Delhi service. An A330-300 previously operated this route.

Millbrook is best for golf

Millbrook Resort near Queenstown has been awarded New Zealand’s Best Golf Hotel at the 2016 World Golf Awards. The award comes ahead of the ISPS Handa New Zealand Golf Open that will be hosted by Millbrook in March 2017. The New Zealand Open is part of the PGA Tour of Australasia held in partnership with Japan Golf Tour. The event will see leading professional golfers from the Japan Golf Tour play the event. 

Millbrook's director of operations, Brian Howie, says: “We’re honoured to receive this award and to not only be recognised for our 27-hole championship golf course but also for our passion for hospitality and delivering first-class customer service. In 1993, the Ishii family set out to create a resort of international standing to be built in harmony with the land. This award is an endorsement of the family's vision and business strategy."

Millbrook has also recently won New Zealand’s Best Resort Spa at the World Spa Awards 2016 and has been recognised as New Zealand’s Best Luxury Hotel at the 2016 World Luxury Hotel Awards.