Sydney turned on a beautiful spring day to welcome Air New Zealand’s second Dreamliner into revenue service.
The Kiwi flag carrier’s second Boeing 787-9, ZK-NZF, made its commercial debut on Thursday, landing on Sydney’s runway 34L at 0907 local time after a two-hour and 55-minute journey from Auckland.
The aircraft, which was delivered to Air New Zealand on September 29, was on the ground at Mascot for a little over two hours before taking off at 1121 as NZ104 back to Auckland.
The entry into service of ZK-NZF on the Sydney route follows a similar path to that of Air NZ’s first 787, ZK-NZE, which flew on the Auckland-Sydney route for about a month before being deployed on Perth-Auckland.
According to the latest information, Air NZ plans to start Dreamliner operations to Tokyo Narita on December 2, with Shanghai to follow on December 14.
Air NZ was due to pick one more 787-9 between now and June 30 2015, according to a slide presentation accompanying the airline’s full year financial results published in August.
