Air New Zealand will be leasing an interesting aircraft during its upcoming peak travel season.
In this post:
Air New Zealand leasing plane from Spanish charter airline
Air New Zealand will be wet leasing an Airbus A330 from Spanish charter airline Wamos Air for the upcoming peak (southern) summer season.
Between November 15, 2022, and February 16, 2023, the plane will be used daily on Air New Zealand’s Auckland (AKL) to Perth (PER) route, which operates with the following schedule:
NZ173 Auckland to Perth departing 11:50AM arriving 2:00PM
NZ174 Perth to Auckland departing 6:50PM arriving 6:05AM (+1 day)
The 3,323-mile is blocked at 7hr10min westbound and 6hr15min eastbound. Air New Zealand has historically operated by a Boeing 787 on this route.
This will be a wet lease agreement, meaning that the plane and crew will be provided by Wamos Air, while the standard Air New Zealand catering and amenities will apply.
What’s Air New Zealand’s logic for leasing a Wamos Air A330? The airline is expecting a busy summer travel season, with most travel restrictions having finally been lifted in the South Pacific. While the airline could operate this route with its Boeing 787, it then wouldn’t have any spare planes if there are operational issues on any other routes.
Leasing a Wamos Air A330 for the Perth route is intended to give the airline a bit of flexibility in the event that things go wrong. There will then be a spare Boeing 787 the airline can allocate to other routes as needed, and this will also free up some Air New Zealand crews, to provide greater schedule reliability.
This seems like a smart, proactive move on Air New Zealand’s part — it seems the airline is learning from the mistakes that have been made by airlines in other parts of the world.
What is Wamos Air’s Airbus A330 like?
As you’d expect, the interior of Wamos Air’s A330-200 is a bit different than what you’d find on Air New Zealand’s 787-9. Wamos Air’s A330 that’s being leased features a total of 280 seats, and the cabin was recently refreshed.
Business class consists of a total of 20 seats. They’re in a staggered 1-2-1 configuration, meaning all passengers get direct aisle access.
Meanwhile the plane has 260 seats in economy, in a 2-4-2 configuration.
This leased A330 won’t feature premium economy, unlike on Air New Zealand. As a result, those booked in premium economy will be downgraded to economy, and will receive the fare difference, plus a $150 voucher. The Wamos Air A330 doesn’t feature Wi-Fi, but then again, most of Air New Zealand’s 787s don’t have that either.
Ironically enough, at least in business class, this leased plane may provide an upgraded experience over Air New Zealand’s subpar herringbone business class product, which leaves a lot to be desired.
Bottom line
Air New Zealand is leasing a Wamos Air Airbus A330 for its Auckland to Perth route for the next several months. This will allow the airline to have a spare Boeing 787 for other routes, because otherwise the airline wouldn’t have any leeway in its schedule. Kudos to Air New Zealand for being proactive in managing its operation.
As you’d expect, Wamos Air’s A330 features a very different inflight experience than Air New Zealand’s 787, though it’s not all bad news, at least in business class.
What do you make of Air New Zealand’s wet lease agreement?
I have also been kicked off Air NZ flight to Perth and i have never heard of Wamos Air and i paid for Air NZ, i had to select my seat again on my new flight, I emailed Air NZ no response, thank Air NZ you have gone down in my estimation.
Wamos Air better be good service.
Our flight to NZ has changed to Wamos and we were not even informed, what if I don’t want to travel Wamos as I know nothing about the airlines I also paid extra for seats but no refund or communication has been forthcoming. I very unhappy customer Air NZ
Also very annoyed as my skycouch has been cancelled, on an overnight flight from Perth to Auckland, and with two flights to go after - this will be a nightmare! The offer to change or cancel is meaningless, because ANZ doesn’t do a day flight from Perth (which is really bad) and there is no offer to upgrade this single flight to bus class. Very unimpressed…
We were booked Air New Zealand to Perth , then told about this new arrangement. And a price hike on this Spanish flight too! Economy looks cramped as hell. Nothing I can do now. So I'm forced to give it a go. If its crap, I'm going to blast Air New Zealand to hell and back and look for alternative flights to Perth in future. Maybe start a Facebook protest campaign if this turns to custard. If it works out ok I'll give credit where credit is due.
Ve heard really bad things on the Facebook page. Also not serving any alcohol on this flight it’s tea coffee water
Can anyone tell me if they still have movies on board
That is not fair at all! This is the second time this has happened to me!! Annoyed to say the least! Steve Walker
Has anyone had the meals, I booked a childs meal so hopoefully they will still do this
Cannot see any screens in economy, Wamos do not receive good reviews in Europe, i will have to look at other airlines for my NZ trips, this is a step backwards for a great airline.
Im hoping their is still sufficient leg room on the 330 not sure if im happy about this as im 6.3 ft tall,
I was looking forward to travelling on Air New Zealand plane. I booked the skycouch but this now not available. I feel this very unfair. No business class seats either. Very disappointing!!. We have booked accommodation and tours so we can't cancel otherwise I would. I understand if we were told before we booked. Not impressed at all!!
I'd like to hear about the economy experience, because that's where I'll be traveling. Please some info on in-flight entertainment. Traveled on another fill-in plane to Perth - there were 4 movies and a couple of TV shows and on our return flight hubby's screen failed completely. Help?!?
Wamos sir is awful
We travelled from birmingham uk to cape verde
Only one drink ,their excuse was they didnt have a key to open food or sell drinks
Crew were asleep in business class and we didnt see them until just before we landed on a 5.5hr flight
Seats were hard and very basic
Hell !
You can blame on wamos. But the catering and services on board depends on your own company on wamos Air fligths. Before complanning you should know before. Good luck Next time
I flew those Wamos A330 several times when Latam used them during the 787 grounding in 2018. The planes are perfectly fine. The cabin crew (Wamos is wet lease!) left a bit to be desired, since they tried to emulate Latam J service but failed.
Was booked business AKL-PER-AKL and while originally annoyed when I got the notice at least I guess the cabin looks ok so all good.
Honestly they should use this on one of their transpacific flights instead. I believe the A330-200 can do SFO, LAX, and YVR. It would be an upgrade over those old herringbone seats.
Far superior business product & with Air NZ catering it should be a winner.
I have a ticket on Air NZ which has become a Wamos flight. Even though I had already selected seats on Air NZ, they are charging me again to reselect seats on the new flight.... I hope this is an error.
Same, I yesterday was on hold to Air NZ for over half an hour trying to change my seats on this route, as it wouldn't let me do it online, ended up hanging up and have just logged on this morning and the seatmap has been loaded in online and I was able to change my seats for free (this is in business though). Got a true window seat!
And the J class arrangement would appear better than the recently announced new J class for NZ.
The best sleep I've had on a plane was on Air New Zealand's herribone business class SFO-AKL. It might look subpar, but it's a very comfortable sleep.
Even in Economy, the 2-4-2 configuration is much more preferable to the 3-3-3 as the latter require climbing over two folks to use the bathroom from the window seat.