News
Air New Zealand weighs A350 against B777X for fleet replacement
March 2nd 2018
Auckland-headquartered Air New Zealand (Air NZ) is looking to replace its eight in-service B777-200ERs from 2022. Read More »
The Star Alliance member under the leadership of CEO, Christopher Luxon, is considering both Airbus’ A350XWB series and rival Boeing’s B777X programme as potential replacement aircraft, airline CFO, Jeff McDowall, said during an earnings call last week.
Air NZ has indicated it is scouting for an airliner capable of performing nonstop flights from Auckland to New York City and Sao Paulo. Both the A350XWB and B777X have the legs to fly the routes.
The carrier’s bread-and-butter business is transporting Australian passengers to North and South America, via Auckland, much to the dismay of arch rival, Qantas Airways.
More recently, Air NZ has identified Asia to South America traffic as another high-potential growth market.
The Kiwi flag carrier has stressed that it is not in a particular hurry to replace its B777 fleet. The -200ERs first joined Air NZ in 2005 and the eight aircraft have an average age of 11.7 years only.
Luxon has told the NZ Herald that the aircraft selection process “was a long one but the airline needed to deeply understand the pros and cons of each aircraft; how much fuel they burned, how many passengers they could carry and what the mix of premium and economy seating would be”.
In the earnings call, CFO McDowall also said the carrier was “in the final stages” of signing a lease agreement for an additional B787-9 to join its fleet in the 2020 fiscal year, growing its fleet of the type to 14 aircraft.
“With the addition of this widebody aircraft, we will have a sufficient number of fleet to deliver on our target of mid-single-digit capacity growth on our longhaul network until we enter into the Boeing 777-200 replacement that will start around 2022,” McDowall said.
Air NZ current fleet comprises 30 A320s, eight B777-200ERs, seven B777-300ERs and eleven B787-9s.
Air NZ last week announced earnings before taxation for the first six months of the 2018 financial year of NZ$323 million (US$233 million), compared to NZ$349 million in the prior period. Net profit after taxation was NZ$232 million.
