New aircraft delivery

[sandpit]

Hi. Does anyone know what happens between aircraft delivery and first service? For example, Air NZ's new 787-9 was delivered July 8, but first service was apparently September 12.

At something like USD 1.5M+ per month, that's a lot of money to spend to just have the aircraft sitting around. So what exactly is being done? That was a new type, so I am sure there is some training of engineers and pilots and ground staff. But 2 months?

And what about new aircraft that are not first of type? What is happening from delivery to first flight as there always seems to be considerable time between both.

Thanks for any info.

[Goat Whisperer]

It takes up to six working days to place the company's inflight magazine in the seta pockets just right, and due to union demarcation concerns this can not be done at the same time as placement of safety on board cards.

At Air NZ it takes at least a week to get the hobbit hair (mostly foot) out of the carpets following shooting of each "epic" safety video. It could be worse, seats used in Bear Grylls videos must be burned then buried in quarantine waste facilities, under MAF supervision.

The IFE content has to be loaded and checked, with company personnel watching each programme in full from each seat. This in turn may require further carpet cleaning as above, depending on staff hirsuteness.

Functional checks of cabin interiors include checking true and representative images of each and all genders in each bathroom mirror and trial flushing of variety of substances into each on board lav. This of course takes time and the assistance of the Air NZ catering department 12-24 hours prior.

Also a day or so for pilot/cabin crew/engineer and ground crew familiarity and training, checking compatibility with procedures, GSE and terminal equipment, including "shakedown" precipitating likely in-service failures.

[kiwiandrew]

Having flown on the aircraft SYD-AKL on 31 August I can assure you that it was in service, at least on an ad hoc basis, well before 12 September :)

[sandpit]

OK was just going by (obviously incorrect) media reports re dates. However the basic question remains, there is a time lag between delivery and operation. Is it purely familiarisation, or is it something else?

[Ollie Onion]

I am pretty sure that the aircraft arrives still officially registered under the FAA so you have all the local CAA paper to be issued, radio licences, AOC etc. Also there may be quite a lot of maintenance actions to be carried out to get it fully kitted out to air nz specs. Also it is quite normal to not incorporate it fully into the flying programme for a few weeks and just to use on an adhoc basis to iron out any kinks before it's full time intro.

Check out this video to see some of the things that can occur:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LDdY21Y2DGI

[Lindstrim]

The first official flight was to Perth on or around that date, but to allow the staff and pilots time on it they did some 'trial' flights to Sydney and also some that just sat on the ground to help get certification from CAA for it and to sort out issues with services etc prior to the public getting on it.

I'm pretty sure that the latest 773 that Airnz got went into service about 2-3 days after arriving into Auckland, and the 2nd 789 was in service about a week after it turned up.

[PPRuNeUser0198]

An aircraft can be flying RPT within days. The aircraft only requires the CASA inspection, so it can be added to the AOC.

Airline work is minimal, with a few EIS activities. Nothing significant.

[27/09]

I'm pretty sure the Air NZ 787-9 flew it's first commercial flight in the 9th of Aug.