It’s an exciting time for Air New Zealand, as the Star Alliance carrier will begin retrofitting its entire Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet with new interiors.
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Air New Zealand updating all 787 cabins by late 2026
In 2022, Air New Zealand announced plans to introduce an all-new business class product on its Boeing 787 fleet, in addition to updated premium economy and economy seats.
Initially this was supposed to debut on newly delivered Boeing 787s, with plans to then later retrofit existing jets. However, due to delivery delays, that hasn’t worked out as planned. Instead, Air New Zealand’s new cabins are now debuting on existing jets.
Air New Zealand has just sent its first 787 to Singapore to be reconfigured. Specifically, it’s the jet with the registration code ZK-NZH. The aircraft is expected to reenter commercial service as of early 2025 — it’s normal for the first jet to take a lot longer than others, since there are often kinks to work out, and certification can also take some time.
The plan is then to reconfigure all 14 jets within the next two years on a rolling schedule, meaning this project should be complete by late 2026.
Interestingly, Air New Zealand claims to be the first airline in the world to retrofit a 787-9 nose-to-tail. This makeover will include:
- New seats in every cabin, including the new Business Premier Luxe seats in the Business Premier cabin
- New carpet throughout the aircraft
- New curtains between cabins and galleys
- New wallpaper, hands-free waste disposal, and amenity holders in the lavatories
- New inflight entertainment screens and system
- Sky Pantry installed in the Economy cabin
Here’s how Air New Zealand’s General Manager of Strategy, Networks and Fleet, Baden Smith, describes this project:
“In 2014, Air New Zealand was the launch customer for the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. A decade on, it feels fitting that we’re the first airline in the world to retrofit these aircraft nose-to-tail with a new interior. This retrofit programme will see all the interiors removed, including the seats, inflight entertainment system, carpet, curtains, and lavatory wallpaper, before it’s all replaced with new product.
“The aircraft will then come back to New Zealand where our team will spend a few weeks working through various checks and training before it officially enters the flying schedule in the next year. Once the first aircraft has been retrofitted and certified, the remaining aircraft will head to Singapore one by one.”
“We’re retrofitting them one at a time to ensure we have enough aircraft to fly our schedule, and we aren’t disrupting customers’ travel plans. Rolling out this retrofit programme before we get our new aircraft also puts us in a good place to continue delivering an exceptional flying experience for our customers.”
Air New Zealand planning standardized 275-seat layout
When Air New Zealand retrofits its Boeing 787-9s, the airline will introduce a single, standardized layout. Currently the airline has two layouts:
- Nine 787-9s have 302 seats, comprised of 18 business class seats, 21 premium economy seats, and 263 economy seats
- Five 787-9s have 275 seats, comprised of 27 business class seats, 23 premium economy seats, and 215 economy seats
Once these cabins are updated, Air New Zealand will have a standardized layout among retrofitted 787s, as all 787-9s will have 272 seats. This will include 26 business class seats (four Business Premier Luxe seats and 22 Business Premier seats), 33 premium economy seats, and 213 economy seats.
As you can see, the biggest change in terms of capacity is that premium economy is growing quite a bit compared to both of the existing configurations. Meanwhile business class capacity is also growing considerably compared to a majority of the jets.
Note that Air New Zealand will have a more premium layout on some newly delivered 787s, but all the retrofitted ones will have the same configuration. Having a standardized layout will be useful in terms of fleet planning. Furthermore, the lower capacity of the jet will be valuable in terms of being able to operate ultra long haul flights.
Bottom line
Air New Zealand is starting the process of reconfiguring its Boeing 787 fleet. The first 787 has just been sent to Singapore to be reconfigured, and should reenter service in early 2025. Then by the end of 2026, we should see all 14 of the carrier’s Dreamliners configured in a standard layout, with new seats across cabins.
While Air New Zealand’s new business class is hardly the most exciting product on the horizon, I’m still happy to see this fleet get some updates, as this is long overdue.
What do you make of Air Zealand retrofitting its Boeing 787 fleet?
Does this have any bearing on the return of the ORD-AKL service which I believe was temporarily suspended due to issues with the RR Trent on the same 787s.
I'm surprised they're only going with 26 business class seats on a 787-9 (and that most of them now only have 18!). United has 48 on theirs, and American's new 787-9s will have 51 business class seats. I guess the whole premium leisure thing is less of a trend in New Zealand.
"Air New Zealand claims to be the first airline in the world to retrofit a 787-9 nose-to-tail."
Not sure this is a positive. Show's the lack of foresight of management when they selected the hard products when the type was initially ordered.
Lipstick on a pig. A crap airline upgrades to a slightly less outdated cabin, with business seats facing each other in the aisle and no armrests.
Well it's about time. I can see this update being popular with Australian travelers who are heading east, particularly across to JFK or IAH. Avoiding LAX or SFO and having one transfer at Auckland instead is a true blessing. Now NZ might actually compete with Qantas, at least until QF's A35K fleet arrives and starts operating nonstop to JFK.
You have to imagine more Aussies would prefer to fly to Dfw and go into LaGuardia vs jfk
Not necessarily. Any domestic flight within North America is best avoided unless absolutely necessary, and besides that, not every passenger is headed into Manhattan.