Reply from Air NZ
There is currently no delay to the delivery of Boeing 777-300 to Air New Zealand.
As has always been communicated, the aircraft continues to be guaranteed available on NZ1 (LHR-LAX-AKL) and NZ2 (AKL-LAX-LHR) from April 2011. This is the first date/route on which people can purchase the new product.
Up until that point the aircraft will operate ad hoc on trans-Tasman and AKL-LAX services. As a result of the ad hoc nature of the flying, our existing Economy, Premium Economy and Business Premier product is the product for sale on those routes. If the customer ends up on a 777-300, they will be surprised and delighted about getting to experience the new product.
We continue to move around aircraft on the network, and as you point out, we have a 747 operating AKL-LAX services over December and into January to allow additional operational flexibility.
The Skycouch has never been a product to be sold on the Tasman, the same way that Premium Economy today isn’t sold on the Tasman. Therefore those seats are masked for the airline to seat frequent flyers as an added benefit to them. This seat mask is what this post has incorrectly interpreted as an indefinite delay to the introduction of the Skycouch.
Also posted on Twitter there is NO DELAY to the 77W arrival.
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