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Air New Zealand Ltd. is canceling some international flights to carry out unscheduled maintenance on Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC engines, affecting about 14,000 travelers during the holidays.
Engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce RR, +0.49% is requiring airlines to increase the frequency of maintenance on planes with its Trent 1000 TEN engines due to a problem with high-pressure turbine blades in that model, the airline said in a statement Monday.
Air New Zealand AIR, -1.07% has 10 of the Trent 1000 TEN engines in its fleet of Boeing Co. (BA) 787-9s.
“Rolls-Royce does not have any replacement engines available while maintenance work is undertaken and has advised Air New Zealand there’s a significant wait for repair services,” the airline said.
The affected flights are to Australian cities and to Tonga on dates in December and early January. The Christchurch-to-Perth route is the worst affected with 62 flights canceled.
The airline’s shares were last trading down 0.5% at NZD2.78.
Write to Stephen Wright at stephen.wright@wsj.com
