Air New Zealand’s last plane stored in the California desert as a result of the pandemic is set to touch down in Auckland tomorrow after more than 855 days in storage.
When Covid hit in 2020, and planes around the world were grounded, all seven of the airline’s Boeing 777-300 aircraft were taken and put into deep storage.
Three were stored in Auckland, while the remaining four were stored in the Mojave Desert near Victorville, California, as the warm and dry conditions helped keep planes in good condition.
Now the last of those planes is making the more than 10,000km journey from Victorville to Auckland, before it gets ready to take off on its first commercial service this weekend.
The airline's chief operations officer, Alex Marren, said the "reanimation" of the last plane left had taken weeks.
“The reanimation of OKM alone has taken more than seven weeks and involved more than 1500 manhours of work," he said in a media release.
"The process starts off with unwrapping the plane from its storage protection, and then it gets a good wash, getting rid of the dust and grime that has accumulated in the desert.
"Then it goes through a thorough servicing and maintenance programme.
"It’s a long and complicated process, and our engineering and maintenance team have done an amazing job getting the aircraft ready to fly again.
"Overall, a team of more 100 Air New Zealanders have been involved in bringing back these 777 aircrafts in some way."
The airline said the return of all seven of the aircraft signalled that customer demand for air travel is higher than ever.
"Having all of our 777-300s back will help build more resilience and more seats into our international operation, meaning we can fly more customers to where they need to go - whether that’s San Francisco, Honolulu, Houston or Tahiti."
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