The inaugural flight, UA 730, was operated with a Boeing 787-9 (registration N28987), and departed SFO airport just after 23:30 local time. It arrived at CHC airport at around 10:30 local time after a flight time of roughly 13 hours.

Moving forward, the airline will use a 787-8 on the thrice-weekly, seasonal route until March 27, 2024 (outbound) and March 29, 2024 (return).

鈥淣ew Zealand will always be a bucket-list destination for our U.S. travelers, and this flight offers direct access to the natural wonders of the South Island,鈥� Tim Walls, United Airlines Regional Sales Manager for Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti said in a press statement.

Christchurch Airport CEO Justin Watson noted that the SFO-CHC service extends beyond tourism, becoming a catalyst for economic growth and global trade.

鈥淯nited精东影业 flights will provide much needed additional airfreight capacity for South Island exporters to get their precious cargo out quickly and onto the shelves in offshore markets,鈥� Watson said.

United Airlines becomes first US carrier to fly San Francisco to Manila nonstop

• Airlines

byJean Carmela Lim

2023-10-31

The North African carrier currently operates nine Dreamliners, and hopes to quadruple its fleet before 2037.

“The two Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners will enable Royal Air Maroc to expand in the short-term its long-haul network in response to the highly favorable market conditions in 2023,” Abdelhamid Addou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Royal Air Maroc said in a press statement.

“The 787 Dreamliner is perfectly suited to support Royal Air Maroc’s growth and modernization plans,” Brad McMullen, Boeing Senior Vice President of Commercial Sales and Marketing said.

“Boeing’s relationship with the airline spans more than five decades, and we look forward to more opportunities to strengthen our partnership with Royal Air Maroc,” McMullen added.

Royal Air Maroc精东影业 fleet of Boeing airplanes includes 737s, in addition to 787s (a mix of 787-8s and 787-9s).

In August 2023, Royal Air Maroc secured four Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in a $300 million lease agreement with Air Lease Corporation (ALC). 

Royal Air Maroc secures more Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in $300M deal

• Airlines

byIan Molyneaux

2023-08-17

The 鈥楯abaseat鈥� flight at Auckland Airport (AKL) takes place on October 16, 2021, a date dubbed 鈥楽uper Saturday鈥� by the New Zealand government, which has announced a day of vaccination events to boost take-up of the jab.  

New Zealand精东影业 borders have been closed since March 2020, as part of a strategy to keep COVID-19 out entirely. However, with the Delta variant having got through, lockdown measures were re-imposed and the government has switched its focus to driving vaccination rates.  

鈥淚n addition to a behind-the-scenes glimpse of an aircraft hangar, visitors will tour Business Premier, enjoy free inflight snacks and receive a special boarding pass to commemorate the moment,鈥� Air New Zealand announced on October 13 in a social media post. 

Destination vaccination We’re transforming a 787 aircraft into a special vaccination clinic, ‘Jabaseat’, to encourage Aucklanders to get vaccinated this Super Saturday More info here:

鈥� Air New Zealand(@FlyAirNZ)

The 鈥榩assengers鈥� will board through the front door and receive their Pfizer vaccine in the plane精东影业 business class section before exiting via economy class. Air New Zealand has stated that face masks and physical distancing are mandatory.  

Aucklander Lauren Tinsley, studying for her private pilot精东影业 license (PPL), is among those who snapped up the chance to receive a vaccination onboard the Air New Zealand plane. 

鈥淚 had a booking in a few weeks to get my second jab but I am absolutely made up that I managed to secure a spot on Saturday instead,鈥� the student, originally from Britain, tells 精东影业. 鈥淯nder Level 3 restrictions, my flight training is on pause and I haven鈥檛 been on a wide-body jet in nearly two years, so I am really looking forward to this.鈥� 

On October 3, 2021, Air New Zealand announced that, as of February 2022, it will require passengers traveling on its international network to be fully vaccinated.

According to data from New Zealand精东影业 Ministry of Health, 80% of Kiwis aged 12 and over have had their first jab, while 57% are fully vaccinated.  

鈥淣o jab, no fly鈥�: Air NZ sets out vaccination requirement for passengers

• Airlines

byVictoria Bryan

2021-10-04

The problem concerns Boeing 787-8, -9 and -10 models. According to the bulletin, the FAA received numerous reports that aircraft AFDS failed to capture the localizer (LOC) during an approach at large angles (40 degrees or more) from the runway and beam centerline. 

鈥淔light data has confirmed that during these events, the AFDS guidance partially reduced the intercept angle, but the airplanes continued through the localizer at a heading not aligned with the runway centerline,鈥� the bulletin states. Meanwhile, the system did not notify of the failure to capture LOC and aircraft proceeded to approach runways at 20 to 30 degree angles.

According to the FAA, Boeing精东影业 Flight Crew Operations Manual Bulletin from December 18, 2019 addresses the issue and provides information on how to correct it, while the company and its supplier are working on a software update to fix the erroneous behavior of the autopilot. 

In the meantime, the bulletin advises all operators of the affected 787 models to notify flight crews to follow corrections outlined in Boeing精东影业 bulletin.

This is yet another problem in a string of bad luck Boeing 787 Dreamliner faced in recent weeks. In late August 2020, a number of 787s were grounded due to the risk of structural failure. Another manufacturing flaw was discovered less than two weeks later; it concerned aircraft vertical stabilizers. Yet another safety concern, related to vertical tail fin faces, was raised a few days later.

Boeing精东影业 expensive 787 Dreamliner problem

• Analysis

byRytis Beresnevicius

2020-08-31

鈥淎s our customers manage through the unprecedented global pandemic, to ensure the long-term success of the 787 program, we are consolidating 787 production in South Carolina,” the company精东影业 CEO Stan Deal said, adding that the Everett team will continue its focus on Boeing精东影业 737, 747, 767 and 777 aircraft models.

According to the statement, Everett will continue to produce the 787-8s and 787-9s until the program transitions to the production rate of six jets a month in 2021. After that, the smaller jets鈥� production will join the North Charleston facility, which was initially set up for the larger 787-10s.

The Dreamliner production system was adjusted to accommodate the current market environment with plans to ramp up production when air travel recovers, the company said in a statement on October 1, 2020.

The company said it took this decision after an 鈥渋n-depth study into the feasibility of producing 787s at a single location.鈥� The research has reportedly yielded compelling enough results for the entire 787 production line to move into a consolidated facility of North Charleston.

Boeing精东影业 CEO Stan Deal expressed his gratitude for the team of engineers in Everett but said it was time to focus on the company精东影业 future. He also believes that the consolidation will 鈥渞efine the 787 production and enhance the airplane精东影业 value proposition鈥� in the long run.

The company has grounded its A380 fleet of 10 aircraft after the pandemic hit the worldwide market in March 2020, forcing Etihad Airways to reconsider its fleet strategy. 

On May 19, 2020, the carrier精东影业 management disclosed that its A380 fleet might never return to service and the brand-new Airbus A350-1000s would not enter service with the airline at all.

Is trouble brewing at Etihad Airways?

• Civil Aviation

by精东影业 Team

2020-05-22

As of September 28, 2020, the fate of Etihad精东影业 10 A380s was still uncertain.

鈥淭he question is whether it will ever fly again, to be equally direct about it, I鈥檇 say the jury精东影业 out,鈥� the airline精东影业 CEO said on Etihad精东影业 podcast, adding 鈥淚鈥檓 not trying to rule out the A380, it would break my heart either more to do so.鈥�

Aside from sentiment, Douglas expressed several concerns about the A380 as a model in general.

鈥淎nything with more than two engines is not going to be able to sustain itself going forward, particularly if your brand is as serious about sustainability as Etihad is. It精东影业 heavily handicapped by two engines too many, and other aircraft that can do the job far more efficiently and sustainably.鈥�

The chief executive also compared the Boeing 787 Dreamliner to the Airbus A380, stating that the former was 鈥渕assively more efficient per kilometer鈥� than the latter.

Douglas also expects the pandemic to accelerate the A380 retirement, as it happened with the Boeing 747.

The manufacturer reported a new problem with the 787精东影业 horizontal stabilizer, the wingtip at the end of the aircraft. According to Boeing, the parts were clamped together with greater force than it was initially designed. 

While the problem may not raise immediate concern, there may emerge issues of premature wear and tear.

The news came two days after the FAA began an investigation over Boeing 787精东影业 fuselage. The authority focused on two problems of the fuselage that raised concerns about the aircraft meeting correct load requirements.

FAA begins investigation of Boeing 787 production shortfalls

• Aircraft

byRytis Beresnevicius

2020-10-22

According to , a person briefed on the new issue said it might require an inspection of as many as 900 aircraft.

It精东影业 been almost two months since Qantas announced its 鈥榬ightsize, restructure and recapitalize鈥� plan back in June 2020, planning to store 100 of its aircraft for up 12 months or longer. The pandemic lead the carrier to 鈥榬ightsize鈥� its fleet and reduce expenses.

鈥淔rom September, most of the (Boeing 787) fleet will be positioned up to Victorville in the USA,鈥� a Qantas spokesperson confirmed the news, as reported by Executive Traveller.

According to the representative, California has much better conditions for long-term aircraft storage than Australia due to lower humidity. The Dreamliner fleet will join the carrier精东影业 already stored Airbus A380s where Qantas鈥� California-based engineer team will look after it.

Qantas will keep some of its 787s in Australia just in case long-haul international flights start to pick up. However, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce does not expect international services to return until July 2021.

“Another important milestone will be the return of our remaining Rolls-Royce engines back into service, which we are expecting to happen in the coming months,鈥� the airline has revealed in . 鈥淭his will enable us to bring further reliability back to our flying schedule and to utilise our most efficient aircraft in the optimum way”.

The Air New Zealand精东影业 鈥渕ost efficient鈥� aircraft are 13 Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners that the carrier has in its fleet of 64 airliners. The airliners, while preferred by the airline for their fuel efficiency, have been plagued by engine problems.聽

In early 2016, the launch customer of the Boeing 787, All Nippon Airways (ANA), detected unusual corrosion in blades of intermediate-pressure turbine (IPT), resulting in early wear and cracking on Trent 1000 Package C engines. At the time, the company estimated that it would take roughly three years to replace the blades in all the affected engines.聽

Air New Zealand was among the affected airlines. It had to cancel flights, make scheduling changes and resort to leasing wide-body aircraft as maintenance issues with the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines resulted in grounding of some of its Boeing 787-9 aircraft. However, the problems did not stop here.

In January 2019, early wear of the high-pressure turbine (HPT) blade of Trent 1000 TEN was also detected, prompting for more inspections. Some of the airline精东影业 Dreamliners were already fitted with Trent 1000 TEN engines too. Moreover, 鈥渁t least seven of Air New Zealand精东影业 Trent 1000 TEN engines are replacements for the earlier model Trent 1000 鈥淧ackage C鈥� engines鈥�, .

In August 2018, the airline already accounted resulting from schedule changes prompted by the global Rolls-Royce engine issues. This year, it does not reveal the exact numbers, instead vaguely mentioning 鈥渁 temporary increase in operating costs鈥� in the face of the global Rolls-Royce engine issues.

In August 2019, Rolls-Royce announced it was getting close to fixing problems that affect its Trent 1000 engines. 鈥淲e have made good progress on resolving the Trent 1000 compressor issue, though regretfully, customer disruption remains,鈥� was written in a statement by the company.

Engines problems have not discouraged Air New Zealand from buying Dreamliners. In May 2019, the airline signed a firm agreement to purchase eight Boeing 787-10s with an option to increase the order up to 20 aircraft, as well as, rights that allow to switch from the larger 787-10 aircraft to smaller 787-9s. The deal is valued at $2.7 billion (at list prices) and the first airliners are expected to arrive in 2022.聽

But this time, instead of Rolls-Royce, the airline opted for GE Aviation精东影业 GEnx-1B engines to power its new long-haulers.聽

At the moment, (last update three days ago) still warns passengers about possible schedule or aircraft changes due to Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 Package C engine problems on a 鈥渘umber of鈥� their Boeing 787-9s.

The airline explains that earlier than expected maintenance checks on a specific part of the engine compressor are required as advised by Rolls-Royce, in conjunction with European regulator EASA. To solve the issue, it is leasing one Boeing 777-300 aircraft from EVA Air.

If the public confidence in the Boeing 737 MAX was not already at an all-time low, then the emergency landing certainly will drag it down even lower.

Authorities have grounded every single Boeing 737 MAX, but airlines can operate them to ferry them to bases or storage spaces. Which means that no passengers can be onboard the aircraft when it is flying.

So, Southwest Airlines (LUV) decided to ferry one of their 737 MAX jets out of Orlando and transfer it to Victorville, California. The aircraft was a Boeing 737 MAX registered N8712L.

Unfortunately, just after taking off the pilots experienced issues with one of the LEAP engines and declared an emergency. Reportedly, everything turned out okay 鈥� the crew landed safely in Orlando Airport without any injuries.

Is the emergency related to the crashes?

In short, no.

To provide a bit longer answer, the main suspect of the two deadly Boeing 737 MAX crashes and is the MCAS. The system, which was supposed to increase the safety of the jet and prevent stalls from happening, has caught the attention of everyone. Preliminary reports indicate that MCAS related issues downed the two jets.

Subsequently, aviation safety authorities grounded every single MAX. Airlines could not operate them commercially, but they could move their fleet to save money.

And as previously mentioned, the Southwest Boeing 737 MAX encountered an issue with one of its engines, rather than the MCAS.

But there might be another issue. And it精东影业 related to the fact that we鈥檙e again seeing the words emergency, Boeing and MAX in the same sentence.

Let me explain why.

Public Confidence

While engine issues are nothing out of the norm in aviation and aircraft can land safely with a single engine, a bigger problem lies behind the headline of a Boeing 737 MAX going through an emergency.

After , the general public question themselves before going on the 737.

Sure, Boeing will fix the MAX. The Seattle based company is already testing new software changes which will reduce the chance of triggering MCAS. Boeing also invited pilots from the three major American carriers, namely Southwest, American Airlines (A1G) (AAL) and United Airlines.

As multiple sources indicate, Boeing has fixed one of the main issues of the MCAS, which was that the system relied on only one Angle of Attack sensor. That is definitely positive progress to get the 737 MAX flying again.

However, there might be a problem which no airline or Boeing can fix.

Public confidence and reputation.

Throughout history, safety concerns grounded some of the most well-known aircraft for a brief period of time. The Boeing 787, , the DC-10 and the sat on the ground during their peak years.

While all of them eventually returned to the air, the groundings led to the eventual downfall of 2 of them. Namely, the Concorde and the Comet. Additionally, McDonell Douglas encountered a lot of issues selling the DC-10 after it鈥榮 grounding, but airlines would operate the 鈥渆xploding cargo doors鈥� tri-jet for a lot of years successfully.

Relative safety

I think it精东影业 important to note that Concorde had a lot of issues beforehand, but the Air France Flight 4509 disaster and the subsequent grounding did not help the supersonic aircraft. The Comet was the first commercial jet-engine aircraft and it just had too many design flaws. After returning to service after 4 years, it was just too late, as the claimed the majority of the market.

But the DC-10 carries a different story, a story that is very comparable to the Boeing 737 MAX. I won鈥檛 go into much detail, but to sum up, the DC-10 had a poorly designed cargo door that had a higher potential of not locking properly and then explosive decompression would follow.

The DC-10 experienced 2 deadly crashes related to the cargo doors, but a third accident related to engine mounting shattered its reputation. The media created a massive hysteria 鈥� the public did not trust the DC-10 anymore.

Similarly, the Boeing 737 MAX is going through a comparable situation. It had two fatal crashes that led to a terrible loss of life. The media went crazy with it, even creating fake stories that . And with social media everywhere nowadays, it精东影业 even harder to control your reputation. The opinion of the general population changed immediately.

And if you鈥檝e looked at the general mood of the public, the image is clear as ice 鈥� not many people trust the Boeing 737 MAX anymore.

Is the Boeing 737 MAX headed for the same fate as the Comet?

The de Havilland Comet sat on the ground for 4 years. During that time competitors managed to catch up and overcome the huge advantage the Comet had. It never recovered.

But the difference was that de Havilland had their eggs in one basket. They also did not have much competition at the beginning.

In contrast, Boeing has a lot of different and successful models currently flying in the air. While airlines might think twice about ordering the Boeing 737 MAX, other Boeing aircraft are doing incredibly well. So, while not infinite, Boeing still has the monetary resources.

Also, Boeing has competition. Competition, namely Airbus, forced Boeing into the 737 MAX. We鈥檝e . Because Airbus has an upper hand in the upgraded-fuel-efficiency narrow-body aircraft market, Boeing simply cannot let the 737 MAX fade away. They will pour their hearts and souls that their jet flies.

Why? Well, low-cost carriers love their Airbus A320neo or the Boeing 737 MAX. They allow them to save a lot of money on operational costs, especially fuel.

And low-cost carriers are flourishing. They are taking over more and more of the market and legacy airlines that want to compete against them鈥� buy their own A320s or 737s to fly their short-haul routes.

Boeing simply cannot afford to lose out on that much of the market. But every single time that the aircraft is even involved in a non-life threatening emergency, Boeing might struggle that much more.