Air New Zealand 777 issues
 

I have heard from two independent sources that the Air New Zealand 777's that have been stored at Auckland airport have serious issues. These aircraft have been stored there while not required due COVID with the engines and fuselage orifices taped up. 6 engines have massive corrosion that apparently will require around $15 million dollars each to repair.

In addition the aircraft interiors are suffering mould damage.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Some information about 787 paint issues.

What part of "777" and "Engines" did you not get Foxy??? :confused:

(I kid, I kid! :E:ok::} )

Not uncommon. I’ve seen photos only recently of some pretty ugly corrosion in Alice with those parked Tiger A320s. Some have been fixed and flown out. Others still work in progress. Engineers will be busy for a while yet.

There has been some pretty horrific stories of whats been described above. No where is the world is immune from these problems and given that Auckland is relatively humid it wont have helped.

Depending on how many they are wanting to bring back, its likely that they will scavenge off other aircrafts to make several airworthy ones.

OMAA

I was chatting to an Air NZ engineer a couple of weeks ago who said they have always dealt with corrosion issues at Auckland Aiport as the planes get covered in salt spray, parking them outside for months on end hasn’t helped but is was expected.

A couple of bags of desiccant in the intakes would have helped!

Appatently not. I was told that when the boys went to remove the engine intake covers water poured out. The blanks were doing an excellent job of holding the water in!

Insurance job

The last time the Kiwi's needed spare engines they borrowed them from Ansett.

huh. Well they are phasing out all their 777, so…

3 of our 773’s have been kept in Auckland, the other 4 are offshore. There has been some engine corrosion reported, but the severity and cost of repairs appear to depend on who you’re talking to.

777 Reactivation is still planned for 2022 with Courses commencing this month (January). They’ll mostly just be covering 787’s getting their wings painted so I assume they’ve got enough good engines to get 2-3 up and running.

Long term, the 772’s are already gone while the 773’s are planned to fly until 2027. With a MTOW increase the 787-10 looks to be a solid replacement for us as the 777X is too big.

True, lest we forget
.....'Borrowed' is a such nice word also.

Impossible. You are a fibbing rabble-rouser. :) :)

GT has just named Air New Zealand as the safest airline for 2021. An airline as safe as Air New Zealand would never have corrosion or mold anywhere.

The $15 million per engine to repair is certainly an exaggeration - that's approaching the cost of simply scrapping the engine and buying a new one (and a new engine comes with a new warranty and reduced maintenance costs compared to an overhauled engine).

$15 mil per airframe maybe? Complete rebuild, all new electronics, valves, hydraulics etc probably wrecked. Include the labour and transport of the engines overseas if required....

Can you insure against stupidity?

$15 Million New Zealand Dollars, not USD. Sorry, I should have been clearer.

That's still $10 million in USD - unless the engines were nearly new, it would still be cheaper to scrap the engines and get new ones.

With Qf ramping up their cabin crew recruitment surely air nz must be looking at doing the same. It seems Qf have restarted again and air nz still being held back by MIQ .