Aircalin A330 woes trigger calls for greater gov’t oversight

By Andrew Curran.

New Caledonia politicians are calling for greater oversight of state-owned carrier Aircalin after a disastrous week in which both its widebody aircraft unexpectedly went out of service at the same time, causing significant reputational damage and having knock-on consequences across the heavily tourism-dependent French territory.

Aircalin CEO Georges Selefen, along with several other directors and staff representatives, fronted a plenary session of New Caledonia’s Congress on August 19 to explain what happened to the carrier’s two A330-900s and why hundreds of passengers were left stranded.

“Two simultaneous technical issues are currently affecting our A330 fleet,” Aircalin advised passengers earlier this week. The first related to persistent odours of oil on F-ONEO (msn 1937) that had been impacting the operation of that aircraft since August 8.

The second issue was damage to one of the engine blades on F-ONET (msn 1938). Because of this, both aircraft, Aircalin’s only long-haul jets, were simultaneously out of service earlier this week. Aircalin also has two A320-200s, which were committed elsewhere on the network and in any case, not capable of operating the routes serviced by the A330s

“For several days now, our technical teams have been working continuously on both aircraft to ensure they meet the safety standards required for them to be returned to service,” an August 18 Aircalin advisory reads.

“As a result, our long-haul flight schedule is experiencing significant disruption, and we find ourselves in a rare and difficult situation.”

Out of service A330-900s create reputational damage

Aircalin’s pair of A330-900s normally operate scheduled flights to Singapore (SIN), Bangkok (BKK) and Paris (CDG), as well as some flights to Papeete (PPT) and Sydney (SYD).

Tourism is the second-largest sector of New Caledonia’s economy, and these flights bring in tens of thousands of tourists annually, generating jobs and providing incomes. But recurring problems with Aircalin’s A330s, and its growing reputation for unreliability, threaten this important economic pillar.

Cognisant of this, some local politicians want a bigger say in how the airline is run, including Nicolas Metzdorf, the outspoken Loyalist Party representative from the Southern Province.

“Everything was put on the table,” he posted on Facebook about the plenary session. “The current outages, the capacity of the A330s and their engines, customer service, and the strategy to go to Paris and/or regional operations.”

“What I take away politically is that for too many years the transport sector has been left to (New Caledonia President) Gilbert Tuyienon,” Metzdorf added. “He has not followed an essential recommendation from the territorial chamber of accounts, dating back to 2016, namely: (that) the air service strategy for New Caledonia must be decided at Congress.”

Politicians interested in airline strategy, not technical aspects

Metzdorf’s interest isn’t in the technical or logistical aspects of running Aircalin, which he concedes should be left to the experts. Rather, he wants Congress to develop Aircalin’s strategy – whether it should stick to being a regional airline, whether it should develop its successful (and profitable) Nouméa–Bangkok–Paris rotations, or whether it should do both.

“Not commercial choices, not technical choices, not logistical choices, just the strategic orientation,” Metzdorf proposed.

Aircalin is awaiting the first of two A350-900s later this year, which will provide the airline with some critically needed capacity redundancy. At the moment, any one of Aircalin’s two A330-900s going out of service can cause cascading delays across the network for days. As demonstrated this week, two A330s unexpectedly going out of service can be a major problem.

In the meantime, Aircalin will wet-lease a widebody aircraft from a European carrier. The as-yet-unidentified wet-leased aircraft is expected to arrive in Nouméa over the weekend.

Photo: Aircalin
Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com