Air New Zealand’s first commercial Boeing 787-9 flights don't kick off until August 9 but the advanced jet has already carried thousands of passengers on ‘virtual flights’ ahead of the Dreamliner’s debut.

While the big black bird remained safely tucked away in a hangar in Auckland, plane-loads of AirNZ staff and their families set out on make-believe journeys to Sydney, Perth and Tokyo – all routes which will be visited by the big black bird this year.

“We load the aircraft completely full of staff and their families to get a good mix of passengers and we run a number of virtual flights run each day” said Air New Zealand’s Boeing 787 programme director Kerry Reeves.

“It’s full service with meals, just as if you’re in the air” Reeves told Australian Business Traveller. “We also get them to give the inflight entertainment system a big stress test.”

Staffers were encouraged to bring along not only babies and young children but elderly relatives and typical carry-on baggage.

Selected passengers were also upgraded to premium economy and business class, although the drinks trolley remained locked away.

The virtual flights ranged from three hours to eight hours and often involved a break in the journey when passengers would leave the jet and then rejoin it for a second shorter flight.

Getting ready to fly...

Reeves said the simulated flights, which finished last week, form the final leg “of the proving flight process” which prepares the Boeing 787-9 for commercial service.

It’s a fascinating insight into the work carried out behind the scenes when airlines introduce a new type of aircraft into their fleet, with a myriad of plans and processes being tested and validated.

Cabin crew and engineers have already been “signed off” as being qualified for the Dreamliner, beginning with the pilots and flight attendants who worked the Boeing 787’s delivery flight from Seattle to Auckland.

The airline’s caterers have also been stocking the galley “with various meal combinations, to make sure their load plans all work.”

“By the time we get to the first week of August we should have completed all of that and satisfied the regulator that we can go into commercial service” Reeves explained.

Air New Zealand staff and suppliers have been told to lift their game after a series of embarrassing mishaps, including a three-day delay of a flight from Honolulu this week.

In a note to staff chief executive Christopher Luxon said he was personally overseeing a "detailed review" of Flight NZ9's lengthy delay from Honolulu to Auckland.

The review would include all aspects of the delay and the airline's management of it, from both an operational and customer experience perspective, Luxon said.

"Events like our management of NZ9 have a big impact on our reputation and the trust customers place in us," Luxon said.

"Put simply we failed more than 200 customers and as chief executive officer I am ultimately accountable for this.

"I want to ensure that as an organisation we do not repeat the mistakes of the past three days again and if this means investing in training our teams further in disrupt management or purchasing new systems for enhanced communications with customers, that's what we will do."

Air New Zealand yesterday issued a $1000 apology to each of the 227 passengers who were stranded in Hawaii from Sunday night (NZ time) until Tuesday morning Honolulu time when one of its aircraft's systems indicated there was an engine problem despite nothing being mechanically wrong.

Flight NZ9, which was rescheduled to operate as flight NZ6889, is expected to arrive in Auckland at 2.50pm today.

The NZ9 delay was the latest in a string of recent incidents in which Air New Zealand and its customers had been consistently let down by staff and suppliers, Luxon said.

These included passengers on a cancelled flight from Christchurch to Nelson being put on a bus and spending 22 hours trapped on the road in a storm, before returning to Christchurch. They were offered a full refund of their airfares and compensation for the ordeal.

It was revealed last month an Air New Zealand pilot had made a serious safety error when he failed to abort a landing in poor visibility at an altitude of 60 metres on a flight from Auckland to Christchurch. The October 2011 flight was carrying six crew and 128 passengers. The pilot no longer works for the airline.

Two Air New Zealand pilots were stood down this month after the co-pilot had forced entry into the cockpit when the captain failed to openthe door on a trans-Tasman flight.

And last week a former Air New Zealand staff member appeared in court charged with smuggling methamphetamine into New Zealand while working as a cabin attendant in May.

He was remanded on bail until his next appearance in September

FURTHER UPDATE | ANA is seat to beat Air New Zealand to the punch with the world's first commercial Boeing 787-9 flight, just two days ahead of Air NZ's planned Dreamliner debut.

From August 7 2014, ANA's 395-seat Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner will progressively appear on routes between Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Fukuoka, Osaka (Itami) and Matsuyama.

A typical day for the airline's newest bird looks like this:
•NH241: Tokyo (Haneda)-Fukuoka, 07:25-09:15
•NH248: Fukuoka-Tokyo (Haneda), 10:05-11:50
•NH25: Tokyo (Haneda)-Osaka (Itimi), 13:00-14:05
•NH30: Osaka (Itimi)-Tokyo (Haneda), 15:00-16:15
•NH595: Tokyo (Haneda)-Matsuyama, 17:15-18:40
•NH598: Matsuyama-Tokyo (Haneda), 19:30-21:00

The airline will focus the high-capacity aircraft on "major domestic routes to maximise passenger numbers", while in future relying on a more comfortable 215-seat version for longer international flights.

Those destinations are set to include Europe, North America and other "key destinations which are at present served by the smaller (Boeing) 787-8", or as a replacement for other large aircraft.

UPDATE | ANA is now the first airline to take the reins of both Dreamliner variants – the Boeing 787-8 and 787-9.

With the new acquisition, ANA has a total of 29 Boeing 787s in its fleet: more than any other Dreamliner operator in the world

The Boeing 787-9 leverages the original design of the 787-8 – offering passenger-pleasing features such as large windows, large overhead bins, modern LED lighting, higher humidity and a lower cabin altitude.

ANA has 29 more Boeing 787-9s on order, with the option to accept 14 more.

PREVIOUS | Did ANA really snatch the trophy of the world's first commercial Boeing 787-9 flight from launch customer Air New Zealand?

It would seem not.

The Japanese airline overnight trumpeted its first Boeing 787-9 service would take place on August 4, carrying Japanese and American elementary school children living in Japan on a special flight from Tokyo's Haneda Airport over Mount Fuji.

That's barely one week after this stretched Dreamliner flies factory-fresh from Seattle to Tokyo, with ANA using its expertise as the first customer for the Boeing 787-8 to quickly get the 787-9 into the air.

But as Air New Zealand was fast to point out this morning, that ANA flight is a charter service, "not a revenue or commercial flight."

And the basis of putting paying passengers into seats the Kiwi carrier is still in the lead, with plans to roster a Boeing 787-9 on daily runs between Auckland and Sydney in early August.

This will of course be followed by the Dreamliner's official debut as a scheduled service on October 15 flying the Auckland-Perth route.

Additional reporting by Chris Chamberlin.

Air New Zealand crew assigned to fly stranded passengers home from Hawaii are understood to have been drinking and would have been unfit for duty at one stage even if their plane had been airworthy.

Although a 12-hour "bottle to throttle" stand down imposed on several crew does not appear to have prolonged the ordeal of passengers on NZ9, their behaviour has prompted a stern warning from Air New Zealand managers who say that a "small group" is not living up to the airline's standards.

"You are responsible for ensuring you are rested, fit and healthy, and available to deliver the great service our customers expect and deserve," airline bosses told them in a letter today.

The airline would not comment on anonymous claims some of two crews who ended up in Honolulu were out drinking to as late as 5am and were "trashed."

The standard staffing of a Boeing 767 is three pilots and seven cabin crew. There were two crews in Honolulu during the period of the stranding earlier this week.

In a media release today the airline said the delays with flight NZ9 from Honolulu to Auckland earlier this week were "entirely related" to ongoing engineering issues and challenges securing the necessary part.

"As previously stated we have launched a comprehensive internal review of all aspects surrounding the delays and our management of the situation, both from the customer and operational perspectives. This review includes the performance of all functions involved with the disruption, including pilots and cabin crew."

It was expected preliminary outcome of the review by the end of next week.

A faulty warning light which forced the pilots of the Boeing 767 to abort a takeoff on Sunday night (NZT) led to an ordeal of up to 56 hours for the 227 passengers.

They were left waiting for taxis following the Sunday night incident, struggled to find hotels and faced several false starts after returning to the airport.

Customers complained of poor customer service and communication from the airline, and a lack of sympathy from staff on the ground and offered $1000 in compensation.

The letter from cabin crew general manager Leeanne Langridge and pilots general manager Darin Stringer says crew must remain contactable, staying rested and ensuring they are prepared for a duty when the need arises.

" I'm sure many of you share our embarrassment at the way the actions of some of our peers have impacted on the reputation of our professions both with our customers and within Air New Zealand."

The letter follows an internal memo to staff from chief executive Christopher Luxon in which he said the airline had failed failed more than 200 customers.

"As chief executive officer I am ultimately accountable for this,".

In the memo Luxon said events like the management of NZ9 had a big impact on our reputation and the trust customers placed in the airline.

He said the airline had been let down by some of its 11,000 staff and and some suppliers.

Incidents that had been in the headlines recently included a standoff between pilots over cockpit entry, the Transport Accident Investigation Commission report into a potentially dangerous landing at Christchurch, the former cabin crew member accused of importing drugs sewn into his uniform, and the bussing of passengers from Christchurch to Nelson during the storm at Easter after flight cancellations.

If public spooning and toilet art work would make your long haul flight more comfortable, the Air New Zealand Dreamliner is the plane for you.

The black and white Boeing 787-9, the "stretch" version of the 787-8, landed in Christchurch yesterday, four years after its scheduled delivery.

Air New Zealand bought it at cut-price rates in 2004 when Boeing was struggling to sell planes. The Dreamliner boasts a more spacious cabin, touch-screen televisions and black upholstery.

Overhead storage bins are bigger, the toilets more spacious and the seats more ergonomic. In first class, "business premier", the toilet has a black and white butterfly wallpaper for passengers to ponder.

First class is nice. There are only 18 seats in first class, each in their cosy pod, and they can be turned into beds. The televisions have a swivel function and the area has its own cabin crew.

In economy, the leg room seems much the same and the screens don't swivel. The toilet wallpaper shows a bookshelf.

To enjoy the plane's most talked about feature, the Skycouch, you will need to buy three economy seats in a row or have flexible standards on who you cuddle up to.

The whole plane has flashy new windows that tint at the push of a button and you can charge your phone using a USB connection on the back of the seat in front.

Air New Zealand promises prices for flights on the Dreamliner - to Perth, Tokyo and Shanghai - will not go through the roof.

Air New Zealand is interviewing pilots and cabin crew of the delayed NZ9 Honolulu flight which saw 223 passengers stranded for three days.

The interviews - which are checking to see if staff were breaching the company's Code of Conduct, follow claims that some air crew were drunk during the prolonged stay.

There were two Air NZ Boeing 767 crews in Honolulu during the delays that started on Sunday and there have been anonymous claims some crew members were drinking as late as 5am and were ''trashed'', the New Zealand Herald reported.

It understood they would been unfit for duty at one stage even if their plane had been airworthy.

Today the airline completed its review of the delays as overseen by Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon.

The review found a series of shortcomings including customer communication and said that some of the staff may have failed to meet the standards of the airline.

"I would like to apologise again to our customers whom we let down in Honolulu," Luxon said. "This disruption should have been managed better on many levels and some valuable lessons have been learned across our airline."

Luxon wrote to NZ9 customers today to outline the outcomes of the review, which include:

Investment in a new communication system to provide better direct contact with customers affected by significant disruptions - one option is already being trialled.
The establishment of a team of staff with specialist skills and experience in large scale international disruption management to be dispatched to international ports at short notice to assist local teams in the event of a significant disruption.
Enhanced training in disruption management for all international airport management teams.
Interviews are underway with pilots and cabin crew who were in Honolulu during the disruption to determine whether there were any breaches of the company's Code of Conduct.
All Air New Zealand staff will be reminded of the company's Code of Conduct to ensure there can be no misunderstanding of expected standards.