Three Boeings were stored in Oakland, while the other four were located in the United States, or rather in the desert near Victorville. Warm and dry air is ideal for keeping an aircraft in potentially operational condition. The aircraft is now on a more than 10,000 km intercontinental flight from Victorville to Auckland via Singapore. And already on May 13, the first commercial flight to San Francisco is scheduled for departure.
The liners that arrived from conservation will be used on routes to San–Francisco, Honolulu, Houston and Tahiti.
To It was an incredible amount of work to get those planes back. The resuscitation alone took more than seven weeks and required more than 1,500 man-hours. Air New Zealand's engineering team was in Victorville working with a local maintenance provider to revive the aircraft.
The process began with the aircraft removed from its storage bag. Then it was washed well to get rid of dust and sand that had accumulated in all the cracks. What followed was a lengthy and complex maintenance program.
The final safety check took a whole day, along with inspections and tests similar to those carried out when a new aircraft is received from the factory.
Boeing 777 , arriving from the desert, will make a short visit to the hangar in Oakland for pre-flight maintenance before flying to San Francisco over the weekend.