Story by ANDREW KACIMAIWAI
Images, video supplied by Air NZ
SEVEN weeks and 1500+ man-hours later, and Air NZ has reanimated the last of its Boeing 777 aircraft from the Mojave Desert in the US.
And its first commercial service brought it back to the general neighbourhood when it turned around in three days to fly the airline’s Auckland-San Francisco service.
The last of the airline’s four 777-300 aircraft held in the Victorville Mojave Desert during the Covid-19 pandemic, it touched down in Auckland on Wednesday, May 10. Three days later, it was back in the air, headed northeast across the Pacific Ocean.
When Covid-19 hit in 2020 and aircraft around the world were grounded, all seven of the airline’s 777 aircraft were put into deep storage; three
Three were stored in Auckland and four in the Mojave, near Victorville, CA, as the warm and dry conditions were ideal to keep the aircraft in pristine condition.
The aircraft (registration OKM) made the 10,000km journey from Victorville to Auckland via Singapore for a three-day turnaround.
Air New Zealand’s Chief Operations Officer Alex Marren says the return of all seven aircraft was a signal that the airline had bounced back after Covid-19.
“Having all of our 777-300s back will help build more resilience and more seats into our international operation, meaning we can fly more customers to where they need to go whether that’s San Francisco, Honolulu, Houston or Tahiti,” she said.
“An incredible amount of work has gone into bringing these aircraft back. The reanimation of OKM alone has taken more than seven weeks and involved more than 1500 man-hours of work.”
A team of Air New Zealand engineers were in Victorville working with a local maintenance provider to reanimate the aircraft.
“The process starts off with unwrapping the plane from its storage protection then it gets a good wash, getting rid of the dust and grime that has accumulated in the desert.
“Then it goes through a thorough servicing and maintenance programme. It’s a long and a complicated process and our engineering and maintenance team have done an amazing job getting the aircraft ready to fly again.”
As a final safety check, a pilot team spend a day running through checks and tests, similar to the process when receiving a new aircraft from the factory.
“Overall a team of more 100 Air New Zealanders were involved in bringing back these 777 aircrafts in some way.”
OKM made a short visit to the Auckland engineering and maintenance hangar before it took to the air again.
“We’re really excited to be bringing these aircraft back into our skies for years to come.”
Tasman Aircraft 