Ramp rash: Air New Zealand working with Boeing experts to fix ding on Dreamliner

Air New Zealand is working with Boeing experts to repair the damage done to one of its Boeing 787 Dreamliners and is still uncertain about how long the plane will be out of action.

The damage to the rear fuselage was caused by a service truck at Auckland Airport where the aircraft is parked undergoing repairs “using standard protocols”.

Dreamliner fuselages are made of carbon fibre, harder than aluminium used on older aircraft, but they can be more challenging to repair.

While the airline is not releasing details of the damage, a plane enthusiast has on social media described it as a 35cm ‘’gouge’' to the fuselage. The aircraft, thought to be NZ-ZKE was delivered to Air New Zealand in 2016 and is among 14 Dreamliners in its fleet.

An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said the impact on passengers had been minimised by spreading changes across the network.

‘‘The team is currently working hard behind the scenes to understand how long the aircraft will be out of action and what we can do to limit the impact on our customers. This includes seeing where we can consolidate flights and move customers to the next available services.’’

As of late last week, the international schedule had been adjusted through to September 8 and the airline apologised to affected passengers.

‘’We have spread the changes across the network to limit the impact on any one route, along with leveraging the operational resilience of spare aircraft time that is incorporated in our schedules.’’

The ding to the Dreamliner comes as the airline is gearing up for more international flying from October and faces ongoing Pratt & Whitney problems on some of its domestic and short-haul Airbus A321 aircraft.

It has Spanish charter operator Wamos operating its Auckland-Perth route until the end of October. Air New Zealand committed to the charter to give it more headroom in cases such as the damage to the Dreamliner more than a week ago.

Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran last week said the incident was frustrating but the schedule was built to allow for it.

More than half of a Dreamliner is made of composite materials - long strands of carbon fibre that are impregnated with resin and then baked in a superheated autoclave for eight hours to make the rear sections of 787 Dreamliner fuselages.

Very light, they also have lightning-conducting copper mesh inlaid into the composite.

When Dreamliners and Airbus A350 composite planes were widely introduced a decade ago, airport ground staff were trained to identify and report damage to new-generation carbon composite planes that is harder to spot than on aluminium-body aircraft.

Damage in aircraft parking areas caused by loading vehicles is known as “ramp rash” and the cost to the industry was put at $6 billion a year.

Dings and dents in traditional aluminium-body aircraft are relatively easy to spot but difficult to see in composite materials.

Boeing said the 787 had been designed with an adequate strength margin to retain certification load capacity even with non-visible damage present. Depending on the findings of a visual inspection, additional techniques, such as an ultrasonic inspection, may be required.

In a Boeing publication on damage to Dreamliners, it said pre-impregnated repairs use a material that has been frozen, thawed, and then cured with heat.

The plane-maker said, “wet layup repairs” use dry fabric that is impregnated with resin and more traditional bolted repairs use sheet metal (aluminium, titanium, or steel or corrosion-resistant stainless steel) bolted onto the damaged area.