Dreamliner inspections prompt Air New Zealand schedule changes

Air New Zealand is rescheduling and cancelling some services this week so that it can carry out required inspections of troubled Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines on its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleet. European regulator EASA last week issued a directive requiring operators of a type of Trent 1000 engine known as ‘Package C’ to carry out earlier than usual maintenance checks on a specific part of the engine compressor. The airline is currently carrying out checks and said it had rescheduled a number of international services and cancelled a small number of services through to mid next week. It said about 6500 passengers would be affected and any further impact to Air New Zealand’s schedule will be determined after required engine checks were  completed on Friday evening. Air New Zealand General Manager Customer Experience Anita Hawthorne said the airline was working to minimise the impact of the checks on its customers. “This is a particularly busy time on our network and we are conscious many Kiwis are heading away for the school holidays.,’’ she said. “We sincerely apologise for any disruption to our customers’ travel plans and we thank them for their patience. “Although the requirement for engine checks is outside of our control we are doing all we can to reduce any impact, by making changes to our schedule to allow us to keep cancellations to a minimum.” Rolls-Royce said recently the increased inspections were driven by “our further understanding of the durability of the Trent 1000 Package C compressor”. Read: Rolls-Royce engines cause further Dreamliner disruptions. The US Federal Aviation Administration earlier this week moved to limit long-range operations of Dreamliner’s with Package C engines, or about a quarter of the 787 fleet. The FAA is reducing from 330 minutes to 140 minutes the distance affected aircraft can travel from airports at which they can make an emergency landing. Read: FAA moves on Rolls-Royce engine troubles. The move comes after several failures of Trent 1000 Package C engines and “numerous” reports of engine inspections finding cracked blades resulting in unscheduled engine removals.