Air New Zealand Dreamliner jets off to Singapore for world-first nose-to-tail makeover

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Air New Zealand has kicked off a major refresh of its Boeing 787-9 fleet, with the first of 14 aircraft touching down in Singapore on Sunday to be retrofitted with new cabin interior.

The aircraft, with the registration code ZK-NZH, will spend some time at ST Engineering, the airline’s heavy maintenance partner, where it will have its existing interior stripped out and all-new products installed, including revamped seats in Economy and Premium Economy, and the redesigned Business Premier cabin, including the new Business Premier Luxe product.

Air New Zealand’s General Manager of Strategy, Networks and Fleet, Baden Smith says the arrival of the aircraft in Singapore marked a key milestone for the much-anticipated project.

“In 2014, Air New Zealand was the launch customer for the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. A decade on, it feels fitting that we’re the first airline in the world to retrofit these aircraft nose-to-tail with a new interior.

“This retrofit programme will see all the interiors removed, including the seats, inflight entertainment system, carpet, curtains, and lavatory wallpaper, before it’s all replaced with new product.

“The aircraft will then come back to New Zealand where our team will spend a few weeks working through various checks and training before it officially enters the flying schedule in the next year.”

Over the next two years, all 14 of the airline’s 787-9 aircraft will be retrofitted one at a time on a rolling schedule.

“Once the first aircraft has been retrofitted and certified, the remaining aircraft will head to Singapore one by one,” says Smith.

“We’re retrofitting them one at a time to ensure we have enough aircraft to fly our schedule, and we aren’t disrupting customers’ travel plans.

Rolling out this retrofit programme before we get our new aircraft also puts us in a good place to continue delivering an exceptional flying experience for our customers.”

Mr Tan Eng Shu, EVP and Head of Aerospace MRO, ST Engineering, says, “We are excited to welcome the first of the 14 Boeing 787-9 aircraft to our Singapore facilities for the much-anticipated major refresh of Air New Zealand’s Dreamliner fleet.

Being a long-standing MRO partner to Air New Zealand, we are able to support their Dreamliner fleet’s lifecycle requirements, from maintenance work to now what would be the world’s first full cabin retrofit on a Boeing 787-9.

We appreciate the opportunity and look forward to enhancing our partnership and being part of the new Dreamliner experience with Air New Zealand.”

What is a retrofit?

A retrofit means we are taking an existing aircraft and replacing the product inside it.

Think of it like you would when renovating a house; removing the carpet, curtains, furniture, wallpaper, and replacing everything inside.

The scope of the retrofit includes:

New seats in every cabin, including the new Business Premier Luxe™ seats in the Business Premier cabin
New carpet throughout the aircraft
New curtains between cabins and galleys
New wallpaper, hands-free waste disposal, and amenity holders in the lavatories
New inflight entertainment screens and system
Sky Pantry installed in the Economy cabin
The aircraft LOPA (Layout of Passenger Accommodation) on all 14 aircraft will be reconfigured to have 272 seats; featuring 4 Business Premier Luxe seats, 22 Business Premier seats, 33 Premium Economy seats, and 213 Economy seats, including 13 Economy Skycouch™.

Currently, the airline’s 787-9 aircraft have two different LOPA or configurations; nine aircraft with 302 seats, and five aircraft with 275 seats.

• Air New Zealand Expands Apia Route with 25 Additional Flights and Enhanced Passenger Experience

• Air New Zealand Abruptly Halts Wellington-Invercargill Flights—What’s Really Behind the 2025 Cut?

• Tokelau is surging the tourism industry with visa free travel to 68 countries including UK, USA, Japan, GCC and Schengen nations

• Air New Zealand’s Cadetship Initiative Propels 30 Young Aspirants Toward their Pilot Dreams

• Air New Zealand Enhances Trans-Tasman Connectivity with Hobart Flight Resumption