Air New Zealand boss Greg Foran says the airline will buy more capacity insurance by again wet-leasing a plane this coming summer as its Rolls-Royce engine issues rumble on.
The airline already dry leases three ex-Cathay Pacific planes to cover for its affected 787s and would again use Spanish operator Wamos to provide back-up on long-haul routes, says Foran. But the Wamos plane wouldn’t be used on the Auckland-Perth route where it has been in the past, and where NZ will face competition from Qantas this summer. Foran says it was a case of sharing the inconvenience of flying on a non-NZ plane to other routes rather than on PER where passengers have expressed surprise and disappointment at flying on the wet-lease plane. Foran likened the Rolls-Royce Trent engine issue to wrestling an alligator to the ground. ”Rolls-Royce will tell us it’s coming right by Christmas and I’ve heard that for the last two years, and frankly it got worse. But I do think they are probably at the bottom of their cycle and can start to come out,” he says.
. . . Better News
Combined with grounded A320/21 planes hit by Pratt&Whitney engine issues, around 10 of NZ’s 56-strong jet fleet can be grounded at any one time. But there’s better news on the P&W problems, says Foran. While six could be grounded now, this may be cut to two in a year’s time, providing a significant boost to short-haul and domestic where NZ is using smaller turbo props and crimped capacity has led to repeated complaints about high fares on domestic routes and across the Tasman.
. . . Game On QF?
QF has announced new PER and Adelaide flights ex Auckland later this year. Foran says that with more planes coming into the NZ fleet it was ‘game on’ to meet the Aussie challenge.
