when is NZ's new Business starting [Retrofitted 787 aircraft]?
 

I'm looking to book a J roundtrip AKL-AMS in September and wondered if it's worth booking NZ metal for their new seats, or if it will still be the old style herringbone seats which I'm rather tall for. I suspect they won't be installed yet but wasn't sure. I've done that rather long trip on SQ before in J and quite liked it, very good sized seats I found and easy for me to get some rest, so maybe will aim for that. I don't typically book in J (with two kids it's just too much money, and I typically don't have a good excuse to charge flights to work beyond Y or PE) but work is covering it this time so I figured I'd ask before booking in.

The new seats will be on the 787s but won't start being fitted until towards the end of next year I believe.

There definitely won't be new business seats by then. The never ending promise of an updated product......

The new seats arrive on the first two new Code 3 789s that will arrive from the end of 2024.

Air NZ did say earlier this year that the refit of the existing fleet may possibly start in late 2024 before the arrival of the new planes but this is not confirmed. The refit will take several financial years.

The updated product will be out of date by the time it's installed

Air NZ backed the wrong horse with the Boeing 787

On what basis?

What aircraft should they have opted for instead? And A350 can't be your answer because that didn't even exit when Air NZ placed their 7E7 order and still didn't exist then 787 deliveries finally started.

They have baited everybody for a long time about a new product and done nothing.
They could have started refitting of existing fleet. Isn't one of the 787 in SIN right now for extended maintenance?

Due to the aircraft utilisation at present and shortage of widebody aircraft there is no real ability to take the 789's out of service for this. A *lot* of work is required for this refit remembering it's a complete reconfiguration of code 1 aircraft to align them to the code 2 275 seat cabin, whereas the code 2 refurb is mostly just new seats. The cost and time is one of the reasons why Air NZ are planning for this over several years.

There are lots of rumors doing the rounds about an imminent announcement for a couple of leased 77W aircraft to join the fleet.

How?

If get A350 would have also need some A330 NEOS.

Going with 787-9 and 787-10 let's them have the capacity options with a single set of flight and cabin crew. And much more overlap in spare parts.

AirNZ is trying to get a scale of economy by using a single wide body aircraft.

787-10 smaller than 777-300 but 787s will mean can move more routes to daily. And daily's to 10 per week etc

so many opportunities missed with this one, but will still be (hopefully) a massive improvement over the current :o

I have no doubt that it will be an improvement over the status quo.
But, it will be akin to going from telegrams to faxes while everyone one else uses email. Right now we have mail by steamship. 😁

Several years while other carries eat their lunch with better product compared Air NZ. There is a massive cost associated with not doing the refit and losing clients.
Historically I paid a premium to fly AirNZ business class due to the better product. And would search out AirNZ services. Those days are long past due to AirNZ's lack of investment in its clients.

Once again I'm not in any way trying to defend the product but the data simply doesn't back up your claim. Close to a year now post Covid of chokka BP cabins full of paying pax on most intl routes doesn't in any way back your claim that they are losing customers.

Well, chokka cabins on a reduced fleet simply suggests that overall demand is at or exceed supply - but capacity IS reduced. Not known is whether folks have given up, or fled to other carriers, since the reduced NZ capacity effectively masks insight into pax behaviour.