Boeing 787s Delayed For Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand’s next batch of Boeing 787s has slipped further from their expected delivery window, as the airline has confirmed fresh manufacturing delays.

Boeing, per the New Zealand flag-carrier, has been forced to push the handover of two expected Dreamliners into the first half of the 2027 financial year in a fresh setback just as the last long-grounded models return to service.

What’s Been Delayed For Air New Zealand?

Outgoing Chief Financial Officer Richard Thomson said two of the new 787s originally expected in the financial year ending 30 June 2026 have not been delivered as intended and instead will be handed over sometime in the first half of FY27.

These aircraft are part of a broader order for the Dreamliners, with deliveries expected following a purchase intended to renew the fleet. But now even those deliveries are in doubt, not because of Boeing but rather a reset at Air New Zealand.

The slip, at the very least, for these two models shows that, despite all the improvements seen across the industry, they aren’t enough to ensure long-standing deliveries arrive on time, and further slips are entirely likely.

For Air New Zealand, the pushback being all but confirmed is really the story of its 787 operational life: whether it has been engine-related groundings or delayed models, these game-changers have hardly been at peak operational performance for long.

Thomson said that, upon reflection, the latest delays have made the capital spending profile in FY26 too heavy. Amid the other challenges it has faced, an internal reset is underway to stabilise the business and ensure its future profitability.

What The Boeing 787 Delays Actually Do

On paper, the two deliveries of Boeing 787s being delayed isn’t severe, but for Air New Zealand, it does matter; this is an airline not with 100 of the Dreamliners to its name and had been planning for the recovery of its operation thanks to these jets and those returning from groundings.

The long-haul capacity pressure has started to ease, and with retrofitted jets paired with new production-built planes arriving, there was a hopeful step-up from what was predicted for FY27 and FY28 within the business.

However, FY27 has seen its expectations shift quite significantly, with less emphasis on growth and more on ensuring a transitional year ahead, with the capacity to be more modest to see new aircraft slot in comfortably and constrain ease.

Cost-cutting is therefore expected for FY27 to help offset the 787 delays and other complications that came in the back end of FY26, but a profit, according to analysts, isn’t expected until FY28, with a loss for FY26 and thus for FY27 as well.

From an operational standpoint, the delayed arrival of Boeing 787s does impact their long-haul routes. The airline has previously announced three new international flights from Christchurch to Singapore, Tokyo and Perth, all for the Northern Winter 2026/27 season.

These Dreamliner routes were made possible not just by assurances of upcoming deliveries but also by the return to service of existing units. While still less enabled than the brand-new ones, with an ongoing grudge match over engines that took 787-9s out of service, the planned new deliveries were seen as a means to provide more stability across the fleet.

The slip in these two models, therefore, does hurt the medium-term growth curve, which the airline already admits it will likely need to halt or, at the very least, not move at the pace initially intended, for many reasons.