Air New Zealand will retire its entire Boeing 777-300ER fleet

As part of its financial and operational restructuring, Air New Zealand is preparing for the complete retirement of its fleet of seven Boeing 777-300ERs with an average age of 9 years by 2027. New Zealand airline will simplify all of its wide-body aircraft to the Boeing 787. Dreamliner Family.

The announcement was made in the context of the airline’s presentation of financial results for 2021, a year in which they posted a loss of NZ$440 million. The pandemic continues to affect international flights in New Zealand and a slow recovery is expected, apart from the country continuing to close its borders and curbing its travel bubble with Australia due to the detection of COVID-19 cases. was suspended.

During 2020 Air New Zealand quickly retired eight aircraft of the 777K-200ER version, representing a loss of NZ$338 million.

The Boeing 777-300ER entered service in 2011 to replace the Boeing 747-400 and was used on one of its most prestigious routes, Auckland – Los Angeles – London Heathrow, but during 2020 Air New Zealand decided to canceled its flights to the British capital.

Air New Zealand will replace its entire fleet of Boeing 777-300ERs with its existing order of 8 Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners. The arrival of the first aircraft is scheduled for 2024 and will begin retiring the Boeing 777-300ER from 2025, initially with two models until 2027 when the process ends, closing 22 years of operations with the 777 family.

The initial Boeing 787-10 order was planned to retire Boeing 777-200ERs, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced it to change plans and simplify its long-haul fleet with Dreamliners.

Routes operated by Boeing 777-300ER aircraft before the pandemic:

• Auckland – Los Angeles – London Heathrow
• Auckland – Los Angeles
• Auckland – San Francisco
• Auckland – Houston

Air New Zealand is working with Boeing to increase the MTOW of the Boeing 787-10 so that they can operate routes between Auckland – Los Angeles and Auckland – San Francisco without cargo penalties. The airline will simplify its fleet to four Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Airbus A320CO/Neo, ATR and Bombardier Q series models.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner will operate its trunk routes to its international destinations in North America, Asia and Australia. The -9 version will be used for its longest routes such as Houston and Vancouver, as well as for sparse routes on the network such as Seoul and Taipei in Asia. On the other hand, the Boeing 787-10 will be in charge of operating its main routes in Asia and North America such as Singapore, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Los Angeles and San Francisco. With an integrated fleet, the airline will have significant savings in maintenance, crew training and flight operations.

The new generation of business class

With the arrival of the new Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner, the airline will usher in a new generation of business class business premiere, also expect a clause business plus Where the airline will offer a business class seat better than the rest of the competition. Air New Zealand was the first Dreamliner operator to configure its business class seats in rows of 1-1-1. Refurbishment of the Boeing 787-9 cabin is also expected after 2023.