With the reintroduction to service of Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9's ZK-NZD and ZK-NZH following engine related groundings, wet leased Hi Fly Airbus A340-300 9H-FOX has concluded its 3 1/2 month stint flying the Auckland/Sydney/Auckland run.
The A340 flew its last NZ101/102 Auckland-Sydney-Auckland routine 27 March 2018 and in the early hours of 28 March it departed as HFM471P (Moonraker 471P) for Singapore and ultimately onto Cairo 29 March.
Meantime, Boeing 787-9 ZK-NZE remains out of the air - but a return to service is getting near. To cover its absence from the fleet, the Hi Fly Airbus A340-300 9H-SUN continues its wet lease with Air NZ and moves from flying the Auckland-Perth-Auckland routine to operate Auckland-Sydney-Auckland. Its last Perth-Auckland arrived 27 March 2018, and it then operated NZ105/108 that afternoon.
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Posted 12 December 2017:
The much publicized "grounding" of three Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners due to Rolls Royce engine issues has seen the national carrier respond to the capacity shortfall by wet leasing two wide body aircraft from Portuguese charter airline Hi Fly.
The much publicized "grounding" of three Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners due to Rolls Royce engine issues has seen the national carrier respond to the capacity shortfall by wet leasing two wide body aircraft from Portuguese charter airline Hi Fly.
The first to arrive was the Hi Fly Malta Airbus A340-300 9H-FOX with the quad jet arriving at Auckland on the evening of 12 December 2017 from Lisbon via an overnight stop at Los Angeles as HFM671P. Sporting an all white livery, the A340 will enter service later this week and operate the Auckland-Sydney-Auckland twice daily operation as NZ101/102/105/108.
The second aircraft, a yet to be identified Airbus A330, is set to arrive later in the week and it will operate the daily NZ175/176 Auckland-Perth-Auckland route.
The introduction of both aircraft, along with some reshuffling of timetables, will cover the shortfall created and this may well extend through much of the Southern Hemisphere summer as Rolls Royce manages the engine situation.
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| 9H-FOX arriving Auckland, D Talbot photo |
https://www.hifly.aero/en/profile.html
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11957358
Hi Fly is no stranger to the region with the Australian Defence Force chartering a Portuguese registered Airbus A340-300 for a number of years carrying troops from the Middle East to Australia on a regular basis, and more recently HiFly's Airbus A340-500 CS-TFX has been operating on behalf of Air France between Los Angeles and Papeete during cabin crew industrial action.
9H-FOX passed through New Zealand airspace in November 2017 when it flew an around the world charter which saw it fly from Papeete to Sydney on the 23rd then onto Singapore the following day.
