Air New Zealand said flights would be pulled while ongoing global problems affecting some Rolls-Royce engines were addressed on its Boeing 787-9 aircraft. File photo / Peter Meecham
Air New Zealand said flights would be pulled while ongoing global problems affecting some Rolls-Royce engines were addressed on its Boeing 787-9 aircraft. File photo / Peter Meecham
EDITORIAL
Air New Zealand is again asking customers for their patience and understanding.
Thousands of passengers are facing disruption and, once again - as was the case when Rolls-Royce engine problems first emerged two years ago - it's happening over Christmas.
This is showing worrying signs of becoming the new normal for these engines which power many of Air New Zealand's Dreamliners but it's important to bear in mind such issues are plaguing the global airline industry and are not confined to Rolls-Royce and Dreamliners.
The intense frustration at Air New Zealand is palpable, staff are worried about jobs and - according to one travel agent - passengers are running low on patience.
Last month, Air New Zealand was close to declaring the problems affecting the Trent model engines behind it but on Monday it had to deliver the next bad news. Newer engines also required maintenance earlier than expected and Rolls-Royce doesn't have the capacity to do this maintenance work quickly.
There are 330 aircraft in service with the engines and the British manufacturer says, despite significantly increasing overhaul capacity during the past 12 months, the number of aircraft on the ground "remains at a high level". It is estimated around 40 planes are grounded.
"Unexpected things happen on all engine systems when building new equipment with new technologies. In this case, some parts wore out faster than we forecast," Rolls-Royce says in its latest bulletin.
The list of cancelled flights.
The speed of engine technology development is now in focus.
Airlines and, in turn, plane makers demand increased efficiency from engines as they try to address what is frequently their single greatest cost; fuel. Airlines are desperately battling to keep fares down to remain competitive, driving the rush to make tweaks or, in some cases, quite radical modifications to otherwise simple jet propulsion which has been around for nearly a century.
Pratt & Whitney's new geared turbofan engine has struck problems on some Airbus A320 and A220 planes - the latter now operating under power restrictions to a certain altitude. Engineers working on new General Electric engines for Boeing's next generation wide-body aircraft also had to return to the drawing board after glitches were found.
One of the world's biggest airline buyers, Emirates head Sir Tim Clark, has said: "Give us airframes and engines that work from day one. If you can't do it, don't produce them."
Fortunately, none of the recent engine issues have proved catastrophic, unlike the equipment and systemic failures leading to Boeing MAX jets crashing within months of each other. Those planes have been grounded around the world and investigations point to the haste of developing the new model, faced with strong competition from rival Airbus in the narrow-body jet market.
Air New Zealand rightly demands safety is non-negotiable. The engines must be checked. But the pace of technology development shows no sign of easing, meaning more planes may be subject to aviation's version of a product recall, more often.
Inevitably, more patience and understanding will be called for.
