Air New Zealand 102 operated by HiFly Malta, Sydney (SYD) to Auckland (AKL)
February 9th, 2018
9:50 am–2:55 pm
Airbus A340-300 9H-FOX
Seats 2A/B (window/aisle, first class)

I had a sense of what was coming up when I had gone to check on our itineraries on United’s website a few weeks earlier and seen the aircraft code change from a Boeing 777-200 to an Airbus A340-300.

Air New Zealand, like a few others, has seen their 787 fleet require maintenance rounds on their Rolls-Royce engines much sooner than expected, so they had to pull other widebodies off any short- and medium-haul routes they might be flying to be pressed into service instead.

To replace two of them, the airline contracted HiFly for two wet-lease planes for the duration of the issue, one to shuttle between Auckland and Sydney and the other to shuttle between Auckland and Perth.

Our flight was one of those scheduled to be replaced by the former plane, and being the nerd I am, there was no way I was switching to something else.

As we sat in the lounge in Sydney, I watched the plain white Airbus taxi into the gate.



We walked to the gate a few minutes later and saw a couple of (very) small signs set on the gate agent desks noting that today’s flight was operated by HiFly, as if that would take care of any concerns. See if you can spot them in the photo.



As we boarded, the gate agents saw we were on one-way tickets and pulled us aside to record the details of our departure from New Zealand, also admonishing us for ignoring the announcements they had made asking us to approach the podium. Apparently our excuse of being in the lounge was a new one that they had never heard before.

Anyway, we eventually managed to board. This plane, now belonging to the Maltese subsidiary of HiFly, was in service for Emirates from roughly 2002 until 2014, being demoted from long-haul to short-haul service at some point in the middle. HiFly didn’t change anything except the exterior paint job when they bought the plane.

Air New Zealand was using the old 12-seat first class cabin for their business class, the old 35-seat business class cabin for their premium economy class, and the rest of the plane for economy. The front cabin had 10 people in the 12 seats, the middle cabin was almost empty, and I didn’t go back to economy.




If I were presented with this product for a twelve-hour long-haul flight in this day and age, I might be disappointed, but for this three-hour flight across the Tasman Sea, this is plain cool.

We found our seats in the center of the front row, but when boarding was complete, we asked to move to the vacant window and aisle in the second row. Nobody had a problem with it.



Apparently 15 years ago, international first class involved a recliner seat that went all the way back to 180 degrees and a little privacy shield around your head. Cute!



Legroom went on for days. I guess if the person in front of me decided to switch to bed mode, they would have just kept going back until they were in my lap.



Refreshments before takeoff included a bottle of water and a hot towel.




HiFly doesn’t really do the video content thing beyond the basic in-flight map, so the safety demo was manual.



I finally had an interesting window seat with some planes to spot, and Sydney Airport is a great place for it.

Asiana A380.



Qantas 747-400.



Emirates A380.



Air China and Garuda Indonesia A330-300s.



Vietnam Airlines 787-9.



American Airlines 787-9.



Cathay Pacific 777-300ER.



China Southern and Qantas A380s.



Jetstar A320.



Philippine Airlines A330-300.



Air India 787-9.



Well after takeoff, the HiFly flight attendants came around with a cocktail service, featuring the tray of orange juice or sparkling wine one might expect on the ground and a packet of mixed nuts.




Sensing it might be a while before lunch started, I checked out the lavatory, which was still in pristine Emirates condition—placards about UAE law and everything—for this flight between Australia and New Zealand operated by a Maltese airline.




I returned to my seat to check out the entertainment (the IFE system is intact but non-functional) and the air phone!




At long last, it was lunch time, starting with the drink cart. The service was roughly split between the uniformed HiFly flight attendants and the Air New Zealand crew festooned in t-shirts to further emphasize that they weren’t certified as flight attendants to operate any of the safety features of this aircraft.



I figured I couldn’t go wrong with some sauvignon blanc on Air New Zealand.



Lunch was a decidedly economy-class effort, served in plastic dishes on a plastic tray with plastic cutlery.



I had the chicken (menus? We don’t need no stinking menus!) with bacon and lentils, which was edible. The starter of smoked fish that accompanied it, on the other hand, wasn’t so edible, so at least there was one dish out of four that was good.



Cheese and ice cream came as part of the same service, and the ice cream commenced melting for the several minutes it took me to eat the main dish. By the time I got to it, it was was both melted and still solid, pointing to an abundance of artificial thickeners. On the other hand, there was a fig and gingerbread bar on the tray as well that tasted like it was made from approximately 150% of its own weight in butter, so that was tasty.

The same pair of flight attendants came around with coffee later, which was similarly bad.



Lunch was over with about an hour to go in the flight, and I got up a bit later to stretch my legs. The business class galley was completely empty, something I’m not sure I’ve ever seen.



Finally, we landed in Auckland, getting one step closer to our ultimate destination.



The review

By any reasonable standard, this flight was bad. Air New Zealand should be ashamed of themselves that they allow this sad excuse for a business class product to be delivered in their name.

If you’re interested in having a positive experience on a long-haul flight, HiFly is the opposite of the right direction to go. If you’re interested in flying on an old plane that gives you a slice of what aviation was like half a generation ago, then this is fun just for the novelty.

Being where we were, halfway through a trip filled with top-caliber international first class airlines, this was a fun change of pace. I have no regrets about taking this flight, even if it couldn’t hold a candle to what people expect today.