Air New Zealand returns last grounded B787-9 to service

By Andrew Curran.

Air New Zealand has brought its last B787-9 out of long-term storage and confirmed that nine of its fourteen Dreamliners have now completed their cabin refurbishments.

ZK-NZD (msn 41989) departed the Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage facility at Alice Springs (ASP) on June 28 and ferried back to Auckland (AKL). The aircraft had been placed into storage in September 2025 because of global shortages of Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine parts.

“We got our last 787 back from Alice Springs this week,” CEO Nikhil Ravishankar told analysts recently.

Within 48 hours of arriving back in Auckland, ZK-NZD resumed revenue service, operating NZ008 to San Francisco.

At the peak of the engine parts shortage, Air New Zealand had five of its B787-9s grounded.

Air New Zealand B787 retrofits progressing well

Ravishankar also confirmed that the B787 cabin retrofit programme was progressing well, with nine of the airline’s Dreamliners now completed.

“The balance are expected to be completed by the end of this calendar year,” he said.

The NZD500 million refurbishment programme will standardise the airline’s B787 fleet at 272 seats and see every seat replaced or upgraded, including the notorious inward-facing herringbone “coffin class” business class seats.

The retrofit also introduces a new in-flight entertainment system with larger screens, new carpeting and curtains, and upgraded lavatories with hands-free waste disposal units.

Air New Zealand’s retrofit programme got off to a slow start, with the first aircraft, ZK-NZK (msn 43217), taking over two months to complete its interior refurbishment before returning to Auckland in July 2025.

Since then, the programme has accelerated. The most recent B787-9 to complete the overhaul was ZK-NZQ (msn 39296), which returned to service in mid-June. Other refurbished aircraft include ZK-NZN (msn 38182), ZK-NZR (msn 65088), ZK-NZI (msn 37965), ZK-NZH (msn 37964), ZK-NZG (msn 37963), ZK-NZE (msn 34334) and ZK-NZC (msn 41988).

A tenth B787-9, ZK-NZF (msn 34335), is currently at ST Engineering's facility in Singapore (SIN) undergoing its cabin refurbishment.

The remaining four aircraft yet to be retrofitted are ZK-NZJ (msn 37966), ZK-NZL (msn 43218), ZK-NZM (msn 38180) and ZK-NZD (msn 41989).

Aircraft returning to service help ease capacity crunch

The refurbishment programme, combined with the return of previously grounded aircraft, is easing Air New Zealand’s long-running capacity constraints.

“Restoring the fleet gives us more options, improves scale and allows us to plan much more reliably and deploy the right capacity in the right markets more deliberately,” CFO Richard Thomson said.

Air New Zealand Fleet General Manager Baden Smith said the returning aircraft would support targeted growth in widebody capacity over the next two years.

The airline is also expecting delivery of ten new B787s, with the first two B787-9s now expected in the first half of the 2027 financial year following manufacturing delays at Boeing.

“This additional capacity opens up opportunities across our network, including our recently announced services between Christchurch and Singapore, Tokyo and Perth,” Smith said.

Meanwhile, Air New Zealand was able to complete much of the required maintenance on ZK-NZD while it was stored at Alice Springs. Its Rolls-Royce engines were removed there and sent away for overhaul.

The airline said carrying out the work in Alice Springs presented “significant logistical challenges,” but enabled the aircraft to return to service around six months earlier than alternative options would have allowed.

Just two Air New Zealand aircraft, both A321neo aircraft, remain grounded because of engine manufacturing issues. Both are stored at Alice Springs and are not expected to return to service until sometime in 2027.

Photo: Air New Zealand.

Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com