Air New Zealand is preparing the first of four Boeing 777-300ERs to leave the long-term aircraft storage park at Victorville.
Air New Zealand is bringing its first Boeing 777-300ER out of storage in Victorville, California. The plane has sat in the desert for almost two years. There are four of the Air New Zealand Boeings at Victorville and the plan is to have all of them back in the air by next year. They'll join the three Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300ERs already in Auckland. It's a surprise second life for an aircraft type that Air New Zealand retired last year.
According to New Zealand media, ZK-OKP is in Victorville (VCV) being prepped for the flight home to Auckland (AKL). VH-OKP was delivered to Air New Zealand in November 2011. As planes go, it's a relative spring chicken. Air New Zealand says it will take six to eight weeks to "reanimate" each of the parked planes. The plan is for ZK-OKP to leave Victorville in late August, have a brief layover in Los Angeles (LAX), and return to Auckland where it will undergo further maintenance and preparations before flying passengers again.
"When the difficult decision was made to store our 777 fleet, we knew that the desert was an ideal environment due to its hot and dry conditions. After being stored for almost two years in this climate, they are coming out of long-term parking in good condition," says Air New Zealand Chief Operating Officer Alex Marren. "No one could predict what would happen in the pandemic and now that demand has recovered faster than anticipated, we knew it was time to bring these aircraft back from Victorville.”
Early in the pandemic, Air New Zealand began parking its Boeing 777-300ER fleet. Four of the 777s went to Victorville and three remained in Auckland. Air New Zealand retired its 777-200s in 2020 and flagged a retirement date around 2027 for its 777-300s. In the post-pandemic future, Air New Zealand would become a two aircraft type airline – the Airbus A320s for local short-haul flying and Boeing's 787 Dreamliners for longer-haul international flying.
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At least, that was the plan. In a classic boom-bust cycle, earlier this year Air New Zealand was bust and doing very slender amounts of international flying. That mattered because while international long-haul flights only ever constitute a minority of Air New Zealand's total flights, they disproportionately boost the airline's revenues.
Now, New Zealand is open for business again and the flag carrier is roaring back to life. In February, Air New Zealand's long-haul flights were flying virtually empty. Now, getting a seat is a challenge. July was Air New Zealand's busiest month since early 2020 and demand for flights in and out of the country is strong. Air New Zealand's fleet of 787 Dreamliners are busy and by next year, all seven Boeing 777-300ERs will have rejoined the airline's working fleet.
Air New Zealand plans to focus the 342-seat three-class Boeing 777-300ER on routes between New Zealand and North America. By the end of the year, the airline will be flying to Vancouver (YVR), San Francisco (SFO), Los Angeles (LAX), Houston (IAH), Chicago (ORD), and New York (JFK).
Lead Journalist – Southwest Pacific -.A Masters level education and appetite for travel combine to make Andrew an incredible aviation brain with decades of insight behind him. Andrew’s first-hand knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing Australian airlines adds exciting depth and color to his work. Andrew is based in Sydney.