Air New Zealand to Ground Boeing 777 Fleet Until 2021

Air New Zealand is planning to ground its entire fleet of Boeing 777 aircraft which will affect the jobs of close to 950 cabin crew. They also plan to make large cuts on the number of crew of its 787 fleet as the demand of passenger air travel has plummeted due to the CoviD-19 crisis.

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In a statement, Air New Zealand said, "based on our forecasted schedule over the next 12 months which includes significantly reduced international travel, we are proposing a reduction of 950 wide-body cabin crew roles." 

The airline also maintains that the operation of the 777 fleet cannot be justified until at least April 2021.

In a Tweet, Air New Zealand's chief revenue office Cam Wallace said, "forward revenue performance for Air New Zealand continues at around 1% of demand. We got one A320 worth of sales yesterday for May travel. June was better at 1.5% albeit that LY was weak! Very keen to see whether the clarification of level restrictions today has an impact."

The CoviD-19 has been the worse crisis to ever hit the aviation industry after world war II, causing airlines to cancel 90% of flights due the plummeting demand of air travel due to government imposed travel restrictions in order to stop the spread of the Coronavirus.