Air New Zealand to use chartered HiFly aircraft

[Mark T]

Does anyone know which aircraft will be in service?

Air New Zealand has leased two Airbus aircraft to help
maintain its timetable, due to issues arising from unscheduled
maintenance of the Rolls Royce engines on its 787-9 fleet.
An A330 and an A340 will operate some Auckland-Sydney
and all Auckland-Perth services by next week, after being chartered
from European firm Hi-Fly.

Cheers
Mark

[MarkR]

I suspect CS-TQP and CS-TQZ will be the aircraft used as they appear to be relatively idle.

[NathanJ]

hifly A340-300 9H-FOX arrived in AKL a short while ago. Assuming it will be one of the aircraft.

[MarkR]

I reckon you are on the money, no doubt the crew will be getting some training tomorrow:

"What would you like, Fusch or Chicken

[MarkR]

CS-TQW was the A330 and appears to be dedicated to the AKL PER hop

[S.Greaves]

I believe that the A340-300 will be operating NZ101,105,705. 102,108 & 708 between Auckland & Sydney until 31Jan18. The AKL-PER-AKL rotation (NZ175/176) is being operated by the A330-200, until 31Jan18. I'll let you know in a few weeks what the A340 is like from a passenger point of view.
I wonder what RR are are doing to address the engine issues?

[Grahame Hutchison]

I did read that three Dreamliner RR Engines were going to Singapore for priority repair, and it would take at least a month.

[S.Greaves]

Was on NZ102 to AKL with the HiFly A340-300, 9H-FOX. AirNZ had been sending email and sms messages re the changes. Notably that there would a HiFly crew, limited in-flight entertainment and meals, and if you wanted to change they would try to accommodate you. At YSSY they called for premium boarding at the gate and then very quickly called for a general boarding and guess what everyone queued and we all boarded and settled in quite smartly without any dramas. I seem to recall that HiFly do ADF charters? If so, there was plenty of legroom in economy so our burly soldiers would not have felt too cramped. A/c had a 3 class configuration. In Business there was some fake timber panelling around the windows which I thought was a leftover its Emirates days. It's a long time since I flown in an A340-300 and I felt comfortable, the fuselage and layout seems just right for my pysche. Taxying out the clunking of the brakes and other noises plus shaking of the centre overhead bin fittings all brought back memories. My favourite was the A340-500 where everything, including the engines, looked nicely proportioned. Could be that the seating was an old Emirates set up prior to the capsules on the 500 series?
Cabin service was slick, no fuss and no mamby pamby. Cabin crew nicely presented with the ladies in a bit of a retro uniform. Very nice indeed.
Wasn't long before I started hearing complaints; "the A in the A340 stands for antique, the plane should be in a museum, where's this, where's what I ordered, I want to go to the toilet during taxi but it is locked, there's nothing in the in-flight entertainment system." Give me a break, AirNZ are in a bit of a bind through no fault of theirs and were doing their best. All had been well advertised espec the entertainment system and pass advised to bring their own! Would I do the crossing again with HiFly? You bet I would. For a 2.5hr flight in economy it was quick, slick and very comfortable. One great feature was the lack of banal cabin announcements just after and before takeoff/landing i.e. there were none! In flight seatbelt announcements were a recorded message.
On climb out from AKL in the ATR I noted a couple of B787s coccooned near the hanger.

[Grahame Hutchison]

A340 9H-SUN flew into Auckland today to take over from the A330 on the Auckland-Perth replacement Bus service.