Air New Zealand alliance partner Cathay Pacific will take over operations of the Hong Kong-Auckland return service, for most of the next three months.
Air New Zealand has to deal with the impact of issues with the Rolls-Royce engines on its Boeing 787-9 aircraft.
Cathay Pacific will use an Airbus A350-900 aircraft on the Auckland-Hong Kong route, from January 6th to January 19th 2020.
Cathay Pacific will also use a Boeing 777-300ER on the same route from February 1st until March 28th 2020. This aircraft will operate daily in February and five times a week in March.
Note that Air New Zealand aircraft will still operate the Hong Kong-Auckland route between January 20th and January 31st.
Customers booked to fly with Air New Zealand on this route during these two periods will be automatically transferred to Cathay Pacific.
The Cathay Pacific Airbus A350-900 and Boeing 777-300ER are modern aircraft of a similar high standard to our Air New Zealand fleet, so we know customers will receive the high level of service Cathay Pacific is known for. This aircraft capacity will help fill the gaps in our schedule to get people to their destinations in the coming weeks and it’s been beneficial to have our alliance partner Cathay Pacific step in and assist us at this busy time.
Doug Grant, Air New Zealand Senior Manager, Customer Care and Communications
The Cathay Pacific operated services will depart Auckland at 11:45 in January (11:40 in February and March), arriving in Hong Kong at 18:00. The flight from Hong Kong will depart at 18:25, arriving in Auckland at 10:25 in January (10:20 in February and March) local time.
Air New Zealand announced last month it is making some international changes to its schedule as a result of issues impacting some of its Rolls-Royce engines. This includes the suspension of its twice-weekly seasonal Christchurch-Perth service, canceling its second daily Auckland-Perth service from December 10th until January 5th and 20 other international cancellations from December 10th – January 2nd.
Rolls-Royce requires operators of its Trent 1000 TEN model engines to carry out more frequent maintenance, due to an issue with the engine’s high-pressure turbine blades. Rolls-Royce does not have any replacement engines available, while maintenance work is undertaken, and has advised Air New Zealand that there is a significant wait time for repair services.
The Cathay Pacific operated services are as follows:
| Flight number | Aircraft | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| January 6th – 19th | Airbus A350-900 | Daily |
| February | Boeing 777-300ER | Daily |
| March | Boeing 777-300ER | Five times a week |