Air New Zealand (NZ, Auckland International) is the latest airline to be impacted by Pratt & Whitney engine shortages, with the airline confirming late last week that it would ground two A321-200NX over the Southern Hemisphere winter period.
“Essentially, we don't have enough engines,” Air New Zealand's Group GM of Engineering and Maintenance, Brett Daley, told the Stuff outlet. “Due to Pratt & Whitney engine availability issues affecting airlines globally, engines on our A320neo and A321neo aircraft are being impacted. This issue is not unique to Air New Zealand."
Air New Zealand operates seventeen A320-200s, six A320-200Ns, and ten A321-200NX, all of which form the backbone of the carrier's domestic and short haul international operations. The aircraft going out of service are ZK-OYA (msn 10963) and ZK-OYC (msn 11096). Air New Zealand took delivery of ZK-OYA in October 2022, while ZK-OYC arrived at the airline in February this year.
Both aircraft feature Air New Zealand's domestic configuration - an all-economy class cabin seating 217 passengers in 37 rows. The engines, PW1133G-JMs from the PW1000 family type, will be taken from ZK-OYA and ZK-OYC and fitted onto internationally configured A321neo. These slightly roomier cabins feature 214 seats in 37 rooms but include multiple rows with extra seat pitch, reportedly providing Air New Zealand with "more options" about where it can fly the planes.
“We're really fortunate that because we've proactively managed this, that we're only seeing two airframes impacted,” said Daley. "The scheduled removal of engines and usual non-scheduled removals are all coming together at the same time for every operator around the world." Pratt and Whitney say they expect their supply chain pressures to ease later this year while Air New Zealand says it is actively scouting for appropriate aircraft to lease on a short term basis to offset any other unexpected groundings.
New Zealand media are reporting that the grounding will impact around 150,000 passengers. However, this is over an extended period of time and the impact is generally restricted to a flight retiming within 90 minutes of the original departure time. Around 4,000 passengers will experience more substantial impacts. Most of those passengers are booked on flights to destinations with limited services, such as Port Vila and Niue. According to ch-aviation schedules data, Air New Zealand uses its A321neo on some flights on domestic sectors between Auckland and Christchurch, Wellington, and Queenstown International as well as sending its internationally configured version to Adelaide International, Gold Coast Coolangatta, Apia Faleolo, Melbourne Tullamarine, Nadi, Sydney Kingsford Smith, and Tongatapu.
