Air New Zealand has become the first airline in the world to take delivery of the Boeing 787-9 with the airline’s first of 10 on order touching down at Auckland Airport on Friday afternoon.
787-9 ZK-NZE (line number 169), operating as flight NZ6789, took off from Paine Field, Everett shortly before 8am Thursday morning local time, touching down in Auckland 13 hours and 27 minutes late at 4.22pm on Friday.
After being towed into the airline’s Technical Operations base at Auckland, the 787 was welcomed by more than 50 Air New Zealand staff who performed a haka.
“Being on the flightdeck on the delivery flight of this magnificent 787-9 aircraft to Air New Zealand has been a career highlight. Like the Boeing 747-400 in the 1980s this aircraft really is a game-changer for the airline and our customers,” said chief flight operations and safety officer, Captain David Morgan, one of four Air New Zealand aircrew who operated the delivery flight.
The aircraft will now be used for a series of training and proving flights before entering revenue service in August when it will operate ad hoc Auckland-Sydney services. From mid-October, by which stage the airline’s second 787 will have been delivered, the 787-9s will operate regular Auckland-Perth services. 787 services to Shanghai and Tokyo are also planned before the end of the year.
A full report on the aircraft’s entry into service with Air New Zealand will feature in the August issue of Australian Aviation.
reverend
says:I hope air new Zealand buys more boeing 787-9 to replace the boeing 777-200ER 280 seats 24 business 27 premium economy. and buy boeing 777-9x to replace the boeing 777-300ER in 2027 etc
Paul
says:and a couple of 747-8’s for the real busy holiday periods to replace the last few 747-400’s. always handy when flying around xmas time. They replaced the scheduled 767/777 with the 747 last time I flew home from Brisbane to cope with passenger numbers.
David
says:QANTAS are you watching???????
John Harrison
says:Great to see Air New Zealand forging ahead in the modern airline world. The B787 looks like a world beater, and can’t wait to see one here in Perth WA later in the year. Looks like a truly great aircraft, and in a great looking colour scheme.
Dirts
says:Hope those clowns running Qantas are taking a good long hard look at what Air NZ are up to. Watched Singapore
operate a flight out of Sydney this arvo using a 777. Qantas followed not long after to Singapore using a 747. Leave the rest to your imagination.