Air New Zealand: 2 More International Configuration A321neo Arriving

Air New Zealand is a unique carrier, the conformation of its home country requires its national carrier to operate a vast range of route lengths. In order to adapt to such a need the airline needs to have in its fleet an assortment of aircraft capable of doing so. A jack of all trades on the short (high capacity) and medium haul segment is the Airbus A321 of which Air New Zealand is preparing to receive two more in the most modern neo variant.

Two More Airbus A321neo For Air New Zealand – With International Configuration

Air New Zealand is all set to see its fleet of narrow body planes expand further as two more planes are on their way to join the airline. Both aircraft are Airbus A321neo, that is the most recent and advanced model of the A320 Aircraft Family.

The delivery flights for the two aircraft are as long as they can possibly get. ZK-NNH, the first of the two aircraft, with another soon to follow have to make their way from Hamburg, the A321neo final assembly line location, to Auckland, New Zealand. The airline clocks that in at 19,342km, which in simple terms is a very long way to go for a small aircraft. Therefore stops are in order along the route to complete the journey, in Muscat, Oman, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Cairns, Australia, to then finally arrive in Auckland International Airport 3 days later.

The new Air New Zealand A321neo, registered ZK-NNH, and the second soon to follow aircraft are both configured with the airline’s international narrow body configuration. That is a one class layout with variable seat pitch which creates a pseudo multi-class configuration. Front rows on the plane have a more generous seat pitch of up to 32.7″ while further back in the plane the seat pitch goes down to 29.1″.

This setup allows Air New Zealand maximum flexibility in operations as it can utilize the airliner on domestic high capacity routes or international medium haul ones, most of them across the Tasman Sea to Australia.