Air New Zealand announces plans to reactivate first Boeing 777-300 from Victorville

Air New Zealand announced (09-Aug-2022) it is bringing its first Victorville based Boeing 777-300 aircraft out of the desert, after 696 days in deep storage. In 2020, the airline sent four 777-300s to the Victorville storage facility in the Mojave Desert due to the impacts of coronavirus, limiting the airline's flying schedule to the bare minimum. The first Boeing 777-300 aircraft, registration ZK-OKP, is due to leave Victorville in late Aug-2022 for Auckland where it will have scheduled maintenance before re-joining the Boeing 777-300 operating fleet from late Sep-2022. ZK-OKP is the first of four Victorville based Boeing 777-300 aircraft to be reanimated and the airline is working through a programme to bring back the three remaining aircraft over the next year. The airline also has three Boeing 777-300 aircraft that were stored in Auckland for the last two years. Two of these aircraft are back in service, with Boeing 777-300 ZK-OKO due to re-enter service in the coming weeks. [more - original PR]