For those who look forward to seeing the Kiwi Fern flying across the Windy City, there’s a bit of bad news as Air New Zealand prepares to suspend its Chicago operation.
The Auckland – Chicago non-stop service will be paused between 31 March to 25 October 2024.
The route is being put on hold due to ongoing challenges with the availability of serviceable Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines which is impacting airlines around the world. These are the engines used on Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787 aircraft.
Rerouting and Rebkiing
Customers with bookings on Air New Zealand’s Chicago services will be rebooked with a connection through another US airport to get them to their destination as quickly as possible.
Those who booked directly with Air New Zealand will receive their new itinerary within 72 hours and do not need to contact Air New Zealand. Those who booked via a travel agent should contact their agent to confirm changes to their itinerary.
Alternatively, passengers can opt to receive a full refund or place their booking into credit.
The issue with Trent Engines
According to the airline, Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines normally require heavy maintenance, where they are taken off the aircraft and sent to the offshore manufacturer for inspection, after 1000 engine cycles (take-offs and landings).
During regular inspections, Air New Zealand engineers identified that the engines required maintenance after 750-850 cycles. Rolls-Royce has been unable to provide Air New Zealand with spare or replacement engines to deliver the level of service needed, leading to a reduction in the amount of flying Air New Zealand can deliver via its 787 fleet.
In Quotes
Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty said:
“We know this will be disappointing for customers travelling to and from Chicago during this period, especially to those travelling over the upcoming April holiday break. It’s not a decision we’ve made lightly and we’re sorry to make this change so close to the time some customers plan to fly.
“Unfortunately, Air New Zealand continues to be impacted by challenges with availability of Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines, meaning we will now have up to three aircraft unavailable for an extended period, so we’ve had to review our schedule.
“We made the tough decision to temporarily pause the Chicago route while maintaining our schedule of up to 35 flights each week to six ports across the US and Canada, so there are still plenty of options to get to Chicago, the US, and beyond.”
Plan Ahead
It seems that Air New Zealand has chosen the weakest of its US Routes to release capacity across the rest of the network – and that destination appears to be Chicago.
Thankfully there is a choice with the airline serving Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New York-JFK and San Francisco as gateways to the USA.
You’ll just need to work out which is the lesser evil to enter the United States of America and transit.
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