Air New Zealand leases additional Boeing 777s due to Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner engine issues

17 October 2018 © David Eyre

Due to ongoing issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines that power some of its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, Air New Zealand has had to lease two ex-Singapore Airlines Boeing 777-200ER aircraft (ZK-OKI, ex 9V-SVL and ZK-OKJ, ex 9V-SVG) and an EVA Air Boeing 777-300ER (ZK-OKT, ex B-16717).

The airline previously leased an Airbus A330-200 (CS-TQW) and used it on Perth services from 16 December 2017 – 15 January 2018 and Airbus A340-300 (9H-SUN) from Hi-Fly from 16 January 2018 – 24 March 2018.

Safety regulators ordered more frequent checks on the Trent 1000 ‘Package C’ engines’ intermediate pressure compressor rotor blades, due to durability issues. This is not a new problem, but inspections for the Boeing 787’s Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines will not be completed until August 2019, which is longer than previously expected. Air New Zealand 787-9s powered by newer Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 TEN engines are not affected.

Rolls-Royce has had to increase its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) capacity to cope with the additional work. Some Air New Zealand 787s will be taken out of service at Singapore while the work is undertaken.

Air New Zealand has been operating its Auckland – Perth services with a mix of its own 777-200ER aircraft, or the two leased ex-Singapore Airlines 777-200ERs (which still wear the basic Singapore Airlines livery minus any airline titles and are operated by Air New Zealand flight crews) and Boeing 787-9s.

Both of the leased aircraft previously visited Perth when with Singapore Airlines. ZK-OKI made its first visit under the lease on 21 September 2018 and ZK-OKJ on 17 October 2018.