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The first of eight Air New Zealand Boeing 777-200ERs leaves Auckland on Wednesday night to be “preserved” in the dry heat of a Californian desert.
The plane’s departure could mark the end of an era for Air New Zealand, with a question mark over whether the 777-200ER will return to service with the national carrier.
Due to the devastating impact of Covid-19 on the demand for international air travel, airlines around the world have been parking surplus aircraft in storage facilities in the desert, sometimes called aircraft graveyards.
Air New Zealand’s fleet of eight 777-200ERs and seven 777-300ERs has largely been grounded since March and will remain so for at least another year.
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Some of Air New Zealand’s 777-300ERs have already made their journey into the desert, with three left in New Zealand, in case they need to be called.
The older and slightly smaller 777-200ERs, which have been amortized at $ 338 million, will be shipped to long-term storage facilities in Roswell, New Mexico and Victorville, California.
The first, registration number ZK-OKH, was due to leave Auckland on Wednesday night.
For Air New Zealand’s aircraft maintenance manager, Brent Foote, it will be Air New Zealand’s fourth fleet of aircraft to be shipped to a desert warehouse in the 20-plus years that he has worked at the airline.
He had previously been fired from the Boeing 737, Boeing 747 and Boeing 767 fleets.
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An Air New Zealand 777-200ER being towed from engineering in Auckland.
Auckland engineers who worked on the 777-200ERs would be “very thoughtful” when they said goodbye to the first of the fleet on Wednesday, he said.
Air New Zealand received its first 777-200ER in 2005 and the fleet now has an average age of almost 14 years. ZK-OKH was delivered around 2007.
Foote said they were an “extremely reliable” aircraft.
“It is fair to say that they are predictable aircraft.”
ZK-OKH would depart New Zealand as a cargo flight only, landing in Los Angeles on Thursday morning before being transferred to Victorville on Friday morning (New Zealand time) where it will be prepared for “preservation.”
“When you put the system to sleep for a period of time, there is still a lot to do,” Foote said.
The conservation process, carried out by a team of about 20 contractors, typically took two weeks and about 500 man-hours to complete, he said.
The first step in the process was paying attention to the engines, including draining and replacing the oil, and putting a protective cover on them, he said.
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Air New Zealand’s Boeing 777-200ER, registration number ZK-OKH, will begin its journey to a California desert on Wednesday night.
The entire plane was then greased and any exposed metal coated with a green protective compound, he said.
In the cabin, protective covers were placed over the seats and the carpet.
Perhaps the most important job was ensuring that all the window shades were down to prevent heat damage from the sun indoors, he said.
“There is a huge benefit to doing that.”
The plane is then towed to its long-term resting place where maintenance will continue to keep it running, he said.
Planes were fired up every two weeks to charge their batteries and every 30 days they were rolled to prevent tire damage, he said.
“That will continue until such time as we need to wake him up.”
When that time came, it took another 500 hours of work to reverse the conservation process, he said.
“They can get a little grumpy when you wake them up.”
There could be minor problems with the aircraft when they have not been used for a long time, for example the in-flight entertainment system may not work properly, he said.
The three 777-300ERs that would remain in New Zealand would remain in “a more prepared state of readiness,” he said.
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The South Africans hope to catch a flight to Brisbane next Tuesday to return home.
The desert provided ideal conditions for storing aircraft because it had low humidity and high temperatures with no salty air, he said.
“Those arid conditions help reduce the potential for corrosion.”
