Originally Posted by
Thai-Kiwi
It’s a trial / proof of concept. Very likely there were those that doubted the usefulness of the Wright brothers’ efforts back in the day.
Whether this is something AirNZ should be dabbling with just at the moment is a slightly different question.
I think they do need to do at the moment as guessing is one of the early steps of the Q300 replacement program. The current situation is somewhat down to the delay start of the 777 replacement program. So may be they are trying not to have the same issues and making sure they start the program with enough lead time.