Originally Posted by
evanaggie
Interesting. Do they do this when the load is less than a 773 requires or is this because of an equipment issue? I ask because wouldn't a full 773 have to bump a bunch of people to fit in a 772?
NZ7/8 runs as a 772 one day a week to create a window (Tuesday to Thursday New Zealand time) for scheduled 773 hangar visits.
Shorthaul substitutions do happen but are fairly infrequent. Longhaul are even rarer. Off hand I can think of one case in the past year (there could be more) where NZ2 ran as a 772 (delayed) to LAX then a 773 took over to LHR. It's an operational nightmare to do such a thing with vastly different seating capacities in the various classes across the two machines (especially J).