Air New Zealand cancels Perth flights

AIR New Zealand has cancelled dozens of flights in and out of Australia because of essential checks to Rolls-Royce engines on its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner fleet.

The carrier says 14,000 passengers will be affected by the suspension of its twice-weekly seasonal Christchurch-Perth service and cancellation of services including several Auckland-Sydney trips in December and January.

Rolls-Royce requires operators of its Trent 1000 TEN model engines to carry out additional maintenance due to an issue with their blades and Air New Zealand, which does not have replacement engines available, says further schedule changes may yet be necessary.