Air New Zealand, Pratt & Whitney engines shortfall

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(Bloomberg) -- Air New Zealand said problems with certain Pratt & Whitney engines are forcing it to make schedule changes that could impact services for as long as two years.

The issue affects maintenance of the geared turbofan jet engine fleet, Air New Zealand said Tuesday. The airline uses the engines on 17 aircraft that operate to Australia, the Pacific Islands and on main trunk domestic routes and must now have them serviced much sooner than expected.

“While this maintenance issue does not present a safety issue, it has caused Air New Zealand to revise its flight schedule as a result of adjustments made to the engine maintenance plan,” Chief Executive Office Greg Foran said in a statement. “Due to engine availability as a result of the maintenance issues, the airline will have up to four aircraft grounded at any one time.”

Airlines globally have been impacted by required checks on Pratt’s geared turbofan engines. Japan’s ANA Holdings Inc. said last month it will need to inspect Pratt engines on 33 of its Airbus SE narrowbody jets and would seek compensation from the company, a unit of RTX Corp.

The issues stem from contaminated metal powder entering the manufacturing process and potentially affecting internal engine parts made between 2015 and 2021.

Read More: Pratt Engine Flaw to Idle Hundreds of A320 Planes for Years

Air New Zealand is responding by consolidating some flying and moving aircraft to different routes.

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