Air NZ to dry-lease CX 777 for 3 years (F seating available)

[Mattg]

Air New Zealand is adding a dry-leased Cathay Pacific 777-300ER to its fleet from November 2023, for a fixed period of 3 years. The plane will be lightly painted to remove the CX branding and be crewed by Air New Zealand staff, but the cabin interior will be the CX interior.

This aircraft has 201 Economy seats (3-4-3 layout), 34 Premium Economy, 53 Business and 6 First seats. The First seats will be available for sale to Business Premier customers and sold via seat selection for a surcharge as "Business Premier Preferred" seats for an extra $150. Obviously there's no Skycouch.




This is the seat map for the aircraft that is being used:

AeroLOPA | Detailed aircraft seat plans

AeroLOPA - Explore detailed aircraft seating plans and configurations.

www.aerolopa.com

The aircraft will be mainly used on the MEL-AKL and IAH-AKL routes.

 

[OZDUCK]

Air New Zealand is adding a dry-leased Cathay Pacific 777-300ER to its fleet from November 2023, for a fixed period of 3 years. The plane will be lightly painted to remove the CX branding and be crewed by Air New Zealand staff, but the cabin interior will be the CX interior.

This aircraft has 201 Economy seats (3-4-3 layout), 34 Premium Economy, 53 Business and 6 First seats. The First seats will be available for sale to Business Premier customers and sold via seat selection for a surcharge as "Business Premier Preferred" seats for an extra $150. Obviously there's no Skycouch.

View attachment 350602


This is the seat map for the aircraft that is being used:

AeroLOPA | Detailed aircraft seat plans

AeroLOPA - Explore detailed aircraft seating plans and configurations.

www.aerolopa.com

The aircraft will be mainly used on the MEL-AKL and IAH-AKL routes.

At first I thought that this aircraft might have been destined for the Per/Akl run as Air NZ have been wet leasing a Wamos Air A330 for months to cover this route.

 

[muppet]

Shame CX demand must be so poor it has to lease its planes for 3 years!

 

[henrus]

Air New Zealand is adding a dry-leased Cathay Pacific 777-300ER to its fleet from November 2023, for a fixed period of 3 years.

The aircraft is not being dry-leased from Cathay, CX removed the aircraft (due to be registered as Air NZ aircraft ZK-OKU but formally HK registered B-KPJ). Even then it was not a CX owned aircraft but instead owned by Air Lease Corporation (ALC), CX returned it to lessor and Air New Zealand are leasing it from ALC.

The plane will be lightly painted to remove the CX branding and be crewed by Air New Zealand staff, but the cabin interior will be the CX interior.

The 777 they are getting was already repainted white back in May 2022, meaning all external CX branding was removed well over a year ago.

There are scheduled to be a few runs to Sydney including 20,21 and 23 November, then from mid to late November it's only scheduled to operated on the MEL or IAH flights but will appear across the network as required.

Whilst Air NZ has been able to update the IFE with their own content, like when the dry-leased the EVA 777 a few years back, it won't have the full buy on board option. The lack of ordering through the screen means everyone in economy gets a full drinks selection and free snacks, with those who've ordered a meal product also getting a meal. Also non existent is WiFi, which despite the 777 being fitted with it because it's a Panasonic system and Air NZ doesn't have a contract with them for WiFi there won't be any free WiFi onboard.

 

[trendwhore]

Woah nice first class when flying back home to NZ from time to time sounds excellent.

Presume the only way to know which days these are on will be the display showing preferred seating available? Any idea of the schedule at the moment?

Having a play around, found some at $105NZD additional so perhaps the price differs depending on which day etc.

 

[poopiepoo]

I would have paid extra for CX's catering standard.

 

[Daver6]

Shame CX demand must be so poor it has to lease its planes for 3 years!

Agreed. They've got from 10+ weekly between PER and HKG to not even daily now. Such a PITA when looking to travel for business

 

[AIRwin]

NZ deploying this on other routes:

Air New Zealand Outlines Leased 368-seater Boeing 777 Service June – Oct 2024 — AeroRoutes

Published at 0300GMT 13MAY24 Air New Zealand from June 2024 schedules leased 368-seater Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, previously operated by Cathay Pacific, primarily operating following routes under the code "777". Effective dates listed below by the 368-seater is based on Auckland departu

www.aeroroutes.com

 

[elanshin]

Noel Phillips just did a video on it so this is now probably going to receive a lot more attention.

Interesting bit fixing the seat by flicking the switch on and off.