Air New Zealand Air Points - NZ fleet renewal - B773ER or A346?

According to this thread (http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviation/read.main/1088187/) on airliners.net (and I've read it somewhere else rather more reliable too, just can't remember where), AirNZ are looking at ordering either Boeing 777-300ERs or Airbus 340-600s for their long haul fleet.

Any thoughts / comments / predictions from anyone on this board? Could this be another indication of NZ moving towards an Airbus jet fleet?

Flight International first mentioned ANZ is looking for 8 B744 replacement.

Also heard that Boeing is sending 773ER down to ANZ for "test/sales" flight too.

This report on NZ's round of redundancies also contains some interesting comments about long haul fleet renewal and refurbishment:

http://onenews.nzoom.com/onenews_detail/0,1227,228732-1-453,00.html

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Those numbers include the airline spending $150 million to $200 million, starting this year on new seats for its long haul services. That includes meeting the new "lie down" standard in business class other airlines have moved to.

But that spend does not include the cost of fleet replacement. Norris says the airline is looking at what aircraft it plans to operate and it will retain the 747 with an upgraded configuration for now.

It has asked Boeing and Airbus for information on potential replacements like the Boeing 777, or Airbus' A330 or A340.

Air NZ is also considering replacing its 767-300s, but not for three to four years and the costs of that have yet to be factored.</font>

Interestingly the article on the front page of the Herald read that Air NZ would "probably" be incorporating lie-flat business class seats into its fleet in the 2005 financial year. No word on First Class which leads me to suspect that Air NZ will go fully two-class like many airlines are doing these days.

Although admittedly the other day I read in the Herald an article about Air NZ's new "146-seat Airbus A340s". http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I suspect you're right that First will vanish, but I wouldn't base that assumption on the NZ Herald report - the reporter probably just forgot that first class even existed! Now that NZ have the only first class offering on the NZ-USA route I wonder if their yield are improving enough to convince them to keep it?