Air New Zealand chooses Boeing and General Electric 

Air New Zealand (Air NZ) has selected Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners, powered by GE Aviation GEnx-1B engines, as the next addition to its fleet. 

The airline has ordered eight of the new aircraft and has an option to increase this to 20 aircraft, some of which could be 787-9 Dreamliners. Air NZ already has 13 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, with one more on order. 

The new deal has a list price of $2.7 billion, but Air NZ will get a significant, undisclosed discount according to the New Zealand Herald.

The announcement, at the end of May, ended months of speculation about whether the airline would replace its Boeing 777-200s with Boeing or Airbus aircraft, and which engines it would select to power them.

The airline has opted to switch engine makers after more than 18 months of problems with Rolls Royce Trent 1000 Package C engines. 

With a list price of $442-$489 million, the Boeing Dreamliners are cheaper than Airbus A350 aircraft ($459-$530 million). Boeing is also working to increase the take-off weight of the 787-9 by around 10 percent or 2.5 tonnes. This improvement is expected by 2022 and would improve the feasibility of Air NZ operating New York-Auckland and Sao Paulo–Auckland routes. 

For the full story see HERE.

Air New Zealand investigates runway light incident 

Air New Zealand (Air NZ) is investigating why one of its planes hit a runway light while taking off in April this year. 

The ATR 72 turned back to Christchurch approximately 20 minutes into the flight for engineers to inspect the aircraft. 

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says the pilots did not “intentionally take off on the edge of the runway”. 

Air NZ and the CAA are working together to investigate the incident. The investigation is likely to focus on why the pilots got confused about their position, CAA says.

“Investigations generally focus on why the perceived reality of the pilots did not match the actual reality of the situation,” a CAA spokesperson said. 

For the full story see HERE.

Voluntary freeze on salaries to cut costs 

Air New Zealand’s top executives have agreed to freeze their salaries this year as a cost-cutting exercise, Radio New Zealand reports. 

Air New Zealand (Air NZ) chief executive Christopher Luxton said increases in jet fuel will cost the airline an additional $200 million this year. "These are quite eye-watering numbers, and the executive has been looking at every area of our business for savings to offset these increases as well as hunting out opportunities to increase our revenue from ticket and cargo sales,” Luxton said. 

Air NZ plans to reduce overhead costs by five percent and is expected to announce further cost-cutting measures in June.

For the full story see HERE.