Defence Minister Judith Collins says the breakdown of one of the Defence Force 757s today is "pretty embarrassing really" and likened the more than 30-year-old aircraft to classic cars.
One of the two so-called VIP planes broke down today just as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was due to depart for Australia for bilateral meetings.
Instead, Luxon caught a commercial Air New Zealand flight, rendering him late and having to cancel some meetings with ASEAN leaders in Melbourne.
The ageing planes are beset with maintenance issues which have proved repeatedly obstructive to successive prime minister's international travel. They also have a limited range, meaning trips to China, for example, require a bunny-hop mission with two stopovers.
The planes allow VIPs like the prime minister and his business and media delegations to skip regular airport processes and easily meet ground transport.
Today, Defence Minister Judith Collins said the breakdown of the plane today was "pretty embarrassing really" but said the Defence Force did "an enormously good job with very, very old kit".
"Essentially, you're talking about classic cars, but it's planes."
Collins said every time the planes broke down there was discussion about "the need for alternatives".
"And every time we look at it, it's so expensive, and frankly, we're in a cost of living crisis."
Collins said it was in the realm of tens of millions of dollars to address.
She said a Defence Force capability review would be released in June, which she had brought forward from September.
"Hopefully that will give us some more options."
She said even leasing planes from other countries was "extremely expensive".
"Right at the moment, when we are in a cost of living crisis, I think we need to hold fire until that June review."
Breakdown 'not ideal' - Willis
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the breakdown was "not ideal".
"I don't think we look like a backwater country [because of it] but I think that it's important that we look to the future and think about what are the assets that our Defence Force needs to do its job well.
"When I think about the Defence Force, the number one priority isn't getting politicians to meetings, the number one priority is working well with our partners internationally to ensure we can defend our country and our interests."
She said it was "becoming increasingly obvious" the Government needed to look at what the "medium term plan is for that capability".
Luxon has previously said all options to address the issue will be considered, including replacing the planes, but also leasing options or VIPs travelling commercially, without delegations.
Labour responds
Opposition leader Chris Hipkins said the 757s would need to be replaced in time.
He said the Labour Government had replaced the Defence Force's Orions and were in the process of replacing Hercules aircraft. The 757s were "next on the list".
"Where other governments had talked about it, we actually did it. We did replace the Orions, we did replace the Hercules."
Hipkins said it was time to consider replacing the 757s, adding VIP travel was "only a very small component of what they do".
He said when Government talked about "not being able to afford things" it was because it was "making the wrong choices".
"They are making choices like tax breaks for landlords and tax cuts at a time when they are not affordable.
"All of the things that we're now talking about, whether its upgrading the Defence Force plane — which is a necessity for the Defence Force to do their job — whether its providing food in schools, whether its building state houses, whether its properly maintaining our public assets, these things that the Government are now saying they can't afford to do, are because they are making bad choices."
Hipkins said if the Government decided to upgrade the 757s it would have his support and he would not prosecute it as Leader of the Opposition.
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