This was published 1 year ago
Air New Zealand non-stop flights from Auckland to New York: Passengers asked to stay behind as long-haul flights hit headwinds
By Siobhan Downes
Air New Zealand's Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 has faced some teething problems covering the distance from Auckland to New York. Credit: AP
It's been a turbulent first week for Air New Zealand's non-stop service between New York and Auckland.
The inaugural flight from New York, which arrived last Monday, saw 65 passengers' bags left behind, as the flight needed to take on more fuel to go around a forecast cyclone.
Then, on Friday, the airline told passengers the flight would need to make a stop at Fiji's Nadi International Airport to refuel, amid "unusually strong winds" in its flight path. However, en route conditions improved, and the flight was able to carry on to Auckland without the stop.
But the issues continued into the weekend, with 15 passengers on Sunday's flight from New York asked to volunteer to leave the flight to lighten the load, so they could avoid a refuel stop in Fiji.
The problem
Covering 14,215km, and with a scheduled flight time of 17 hours and 25 minutes, flight NZ1 – the New York to Auckland leg – is the fourth-longest currently operating flight in the world.
The service is operated by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner which has 27 business class seats, 33 premium economy seats, and 215 economy seats.
Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer David Morgan told RNZ's Morning Report the airline had been undertaking "detailed planning" for the past year.
This included coming up with the flight's "payload" – essentially, how much weight is available for passengers and their baggage, and sometimes cargo, once you've deducted the fuel.
But over the past week, they had encountered "significantly" stronger headwinds on the route than what they had planned for.
"That's the problem, the forecasts we based our assumptions on... have proven to be inaccurate," he said.
While tailwinds can help a plane travel faster and save on fuel, headwinds work in the opposite way – they slow a plane down, with more fuel needed.
Morgan said they had struck winds in the 98th percentile, when the aviation industry generally planned for winds of the 80th percentile.
"As a consequence of that, the flight is taking longer and in order to be able to provide the fuel load, we've had to reduce the payload."
The solution
You might think an aircraft takes off with full tanks of fuel, but this is rarely the case.
It's all to do with a plane's weight. Fuel and passengers (and their bags) both add weight to a plane. If the tanks were full to the brim, in most cases a plane wouldn't be able to carry a full load of passengers.
When it comes to calculating just how much fuel is necessary, as well as the length of the scheduled route, an airline always has to factor in some extra to deal with any potential issues, like having to fly around bad weather, or divert to another airport.
And Air New Zealand now needs extra on top of the extra to deal with those pesky headwinds on the New York to Auckland route.
So, they have two options: either keep all the passengers onboard and make a refuel stop in Fiji, or sacrifice some passengers and bags for the extra fuel needed to make it all the way to Auckland.
Obviously they really don't want to have to do the first one, because then they can't call it a non-stop flight. But they can't keep angering passengers by offloading them or their bags at the last-minute, either.
Instead, what they've done is introduced a new passenger cap for the flight. While on the way to New York the plane can take up to 260 passengers, on the way back, it will be limited to 180 passengers.
Morgan told RNZ the return flight always had a cap of 215 passengers. So it's basically 35 fewer bums on seats than what they anticipated.
Aviation commentator Irene King said the airline would have worked out how much additional fuel they needed, and then figured out how many passengers they needed to cut based on their average passenger weight.
This is something that airlines and aviation regulators determine based on regular surveys. In fact, Seven Sharp presenter Hilary Barry last year found herself being unexpectedly weighed at Auckland Airport, when Air New Zealand was conducting one of its surveys.
The future
Morgan told RNZ he was confident the reduced capacity would lessen the risk of problems going forward.
But it's come at the expense of paying passengers. So how much could this hurt the route?
King said Air New Zealand would be keen to keep all of its high-revenue seats in business and premium economy full, and would likely only cut economy passengers.
Proactively reducing the number of passengers would ultimately work out better for the airline than having to keep offloading them, she said.
Under US law, airlines are required to compensate passengers who are "bumped" from an oversold flight. Indeed, those who volunteered to sit out Air New Zealand's most recent New York flight were reportedly offered US$1500 and free accommodation.
"But it's not just money, it's reputational damage," King said.
"This is a smart response to problems which are clearly ongoing."
King earlier pointed out the limitations of the aircraft used on the route – the Boeing 787-9 – noting it was nearing the "upper limit of its flight envelope".
But the newer version of the aircraft that the airline has on order – due to arrive in 2024 – would be a better fit for the route, as they have fewer seats overall and have been optimised for ultra-long-range flying.
So here's hoping there will be some clearer skies ahead.
See also: 16 hours non-stop: Qantas announces new New York route
See also: Air NZ to install bunk beds for economy class passengers
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