Air NZ brings its biggest planes back from a deep sleep after several years in the Mojave Desert. Video / Air New Zealand
Air New Zealand’s newest leased aircraft has First-Class seats, which the airline believes will be popular with customers.
The airline, nearly two decades ago, partook in the industry trend of moving away from offering First-Class. But the ex-Cathay Pacific plane it has dry leased has six of the extra-luxe seats.Air NZ will add a premium of nearly $1000 for the seats on some flights.
The 14-year-old Boeing 777-367ER did most of its flying for Cathay until it was grounded by the pandemic, but has been leased to Air New Zealand by the United States-based Air Lease Corporation (ALC). The lease is for three years to plug gaps in the network. It will fly mainly on Auckland-Houston and Auckland-Melbourne routes.
“Demand for travel continues to be incredibly strong, so adding capacity is something we’ve been looking into for a while,’’ said Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty.
Business Premier Preferred seats on Air NZ's dry-lease Boeing 777.
“Not only does it boost our capacity by more than 210,000 seats per year, having an additional aircraft will add assurances to our schedule so we can continue to get our customers where they need to be.”
The dry-lease plane will have Air NZ pilots and cabin crew staff, the airline’s food and beverages, in-flight entertainment and other “soft product” many Kiwi travellers are familiar with. It is now registered as ZK-OKU, lost its Cathay livery when it went to ALC and is all white, but will get a koru on the tail when it goes into maintenance and the airline can find a paint shop with an open slot to do the job.
The layout is similar to 777-300s already in the Air NZ fleet, but has the six former First-Class seats Air New Zealand has repackaged as Business Premier Preferred (BPP) seats, offering additional space and comfort.
“It is a really high-quality product, and it’s exciting to have that to sell,” Geraghty told the Herald.
The airline will charge an extra $590 to $990 for BPP seats to Houston and $109 to $199 across the Tasman on top of the standard Business Premier fares.
In total, the aircraft has a capacity of 294 seats made up of six BPP, 53 Business Premier, 34 Premium Economy and 201 Economy seats.
Dry leases contrast with wet leases, such as the one about to end with Spanish operator Wamos on the Auckland-Perth route. Wet leases are typically an expensive short-term solution where the charter operator provides both the aircraft and the crew. Standard aircraft leases most airlines have are for much longer terms, often the life of the plane.
“The [dry-lease] aircraft will be operated by Air New Zealand pilots and crew and will include everything customers know and love – just with a slightly different interior colour scheme and less exterior branding,” said Geraghty.
She wouldn’t comment on the commercial arrangements, saying only that “any aircraft is expensive”.
The aircraft was being fitted out with some Air NZ touches in the cabin and having in-flight entertainment loaded, and will be flown empty to meet regulatory requirements before carrying passengers next month.
The 777 will enter the fleet around the same time one of Air NZ’s 14 Dreamliners comes back from being repaired. That plane suffered damage when it was hit by a service truck at Auckland Airport and has undergone complex repairs to its carbon fibre fuselage.
Inside Air NZ's dry-lease Boeing 777 - Premium Economy on the ex-Cathay Pacific plane.
Air New Zealand’s fleet will be further bolstered in about 12 months, with the first of eight new Boeing 787 Dreamliners fitted out with next-generation interiors due to be delivered.
The airline has warned of some softening in domestic demand, but Geraghty said international demand was strong. Rival US carriers are pouring in more capacity across the Pacific during summer, and she said Air NZ welcomed competition.
“Ex-North America, the demand is really strong. It’s really interesting to see how that’s all playing out,” she said.
“You would anticipate that with more competition, prices adjust to suit that depending on demand and capacity in market.”
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
