Air NZ, Etihad expand cooperation
Guest Writers are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the specific writer directly
Air New Zealand and Etihad Airways have expanded their cooperation with the signing of a major new maintenance deal.
The new arrangement will see the Etihad perform all scheduled and non-scheduled maintenance on Air New Zealand’s aircraft at its engineering facility in Melbourne. In return, Air New Zealand will handle full line maintenance for Etihad in Los Angeles.
The maintenance services to be performed in Melbourne and Los Angeles could include transit, daily and weekly checks, scheduled engineering services and fault repairs for the aircraft systems and passenger cabins.
Etihad launched daily flights to Los Angeles on 1 June 2014, using a three-class Airbus A340-500 aircraft, but from mid-July this will be upgraded to a Boeing 777-200LR. Air New Zealand already operates flights from Los Angeles to Auckland, London and Rarotonga.
Air New Zealand also operates five daily flights from Melbourne to Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, as well as a seasonal service to Queenstown.
“Our successful codeshare partnership with Air New Zealand goes back three years and we are delighted to build on this foundation by working together in the technical area,” said Jeff Wilkinson, Etihad’s senior vice president of technical.
“Etihad Airways’ Melbourne line maintenance facilities, services and personnel are world-class, and we look forward to servicing Air New Zealand’s aircraft while they perform similar line maintenance for us at their modern facility in Los Angeles.
“We also expect this announcement to lead to further employment opportunities at our Melbourne line maintenance facility in the future,” he added.
In addition to Melbourne and Sydney, Etihad has maintenance facilities in Chicago, Dublin, Mumbai, Lahore, London, Manchester and Singapore.
Comments are closed.