New details released by Air New Zealand highlight the severity of the engine availability issues it is confronting – and the bad news is that the situation is unlikely to improve in the near term, and may even get worse.
Air New Zealand is among the worst affected by the engine maintenance backlogs that are hurting many airlines around the world, when factoring in the number of aircraft grounded in relation to fleet size.
Air New Zealand’s widebody and narrowbody fleets have both been hit by groundings, as it relies on Pratt & Whitney GTF engines for its Airbus A320neo-family aircraft, and Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines for its Boeing 787s.
The maintenance logjams – and also delivery delays – are out of the airline’s control, so it has been very difficult to accurately predict the engine availability rate.
However, the airline does not expect meaningful improvement until around the middle of (calendar year) 2026.