Engine troubles affect Air New Zealand’s Australian flights

Health & Leisure
Tuesday, 19 November 2019

Ongoing issues affecting some Rolls-Royce engines on Air New Zealand’s  B 787-9 aircraft have forced the carrier to make changes to its Sydney and Perth, Australia schedules.

Rolls-Royce requires operators of its Trent 1000 TEN model engines to carry out more frequent maintenance due to an issue with the engine's high-pressure turbine blades. Rolls-Royce does not have any replacement engines available while maintenance work is undertaken and has advised Air New Zealand there's a significant wait for repair services.

Air New Zealand has 10 Trent 1000 TEN engines on its 787-9 fleet and has been working to minimise disruption, but schedule changes are now unavoidable. Further changes may also be required as the airline progresses the engine checks.

The biggest change so  far is the suspension of its twice-weekly seasonal Christchurch-Perth service, resulting in the cancellation of 62 flights.

The airline will also cancel its second daily Auckland-Perth service from 10 December 2019 until 05 January 2020. It will continue to operate its 11:10 hrs Auckland-Perth and 18.50 hrs Perth-Auckland services as scheduled.

As well as the Perth route, cancellations will also take place from 10 December-02 January, mainly on Auckland-Sydney and Sydney-Auckland flights.

The airline will contact customers affected by these changes with new travel information. 

Air New Zealand senior fleet manager 787 captain Dave Wilson says the airline has been performing regular precautionary checks on its TEN engines since April and has been doing all it can to fast-track required maintenance from Rolls-Royce.

"Based on the maintenance needs of our engines, we expect some will need to be inspected in December and January and then serviced by Rolls-Royce offshore and unfortunately, Rolls-Royce has no capacity to alleviate this pressure.

"We have 14 787-9 aircraft in our fleet and four spare engines to power these. However, all these spare engines are with Rolls Royce offshore either undergoing service or waiting for a service slot.”

There is no impact to the airline's 22 Trent 1000 Package C model engines as a result of this HPT blade issue.

Engine troubles affect Air New Zealand’s Australian flights

Health & Leisure
Tuesday, 19 November 2019

Ongoing issues affecting some Rolls-Royce engines on Air New Zealand’s  B 787-9 aircraft have forced the carrier to make changes to its Sydney and Perth, Australia schedules.

Rolls-Royce requires operators of its Trent 1000 TEN model engines to carry out more frequent maintenance due to an issue with the engine's high-pressure turbine blades. Rolls-Royce does not have any replacement engines available while maintenance work is undertaken and has advised Air New Zealand there's a significant wait for repair services.

Air New Zealand has 10 Trent 1000 TEN engines on its 787-9 fleet and has been working to minimise disruption, but schedule changes are now unavoidable. Further changes may also be required as the airline progresses the engine checks.

The biggest change so  far is the suspension of its twice-weekly seasonal Christchurch-Perth service, resulting in the cancellation of 62 flights.

The airline will also cancel its second daily Auckland-Perth service from 10 December 2019 until 05 January 2020. It will continue to operate its 11:10 hrs Auckland-Perth and 18.50 hrs Perth-Auckland services as scheduled.

As well as the Perth route, cancellations will also take place from 10 December-02 January, mainly on Auckland-Sydney and Sydney-Auckland flights.

The airline will contact customers affected by these changes with new travel information. 

Air New Zealand senior fleet manager 787 captain Dave Wilson says the airline has been performing regular precautionary checks on its TEN engines since April and has been doing all it can to fast-track required maintenance from Rolls-Royce.

"Based on the maintenance needs of our engines, we expect some will need to be inspected in December and January and then serviced by Rolls-Royce offshore and unfortunately, Rolls-Royce has no capacity to alleviate this pressure.

"We have 14 787-9 aircraft in our fleet and four spare engines to power these. However, all these spare engines are with Rolls Royce offshore either undergoing service or waiting for a service slot.”

There is no impact to the airline's 22 Trent 1000 Package C model engines as a result of this HPT blade issue.