Air New Zealand has been compensated for delays in receiving its Boeing 787 Dreamliner planes and is in talks for more, while it will also spend up to USD$270 million to upgrade its domestic fleet, the airline said on Wednesday.
Chief executive Rob Fyfe told a media briefing on the domestic fleet expansion that Boeing has made offers to Air NZ over the delays in delivery of the 787.
"We have received compensation, the package is confidential, there's a further round of compensation negotiations currently underway for the more recent delays," he said in reply to a question.
He said the 787, originally expected in service in 2010, remained the right aircraft for Air NZ's long haul international flights.
On Tuesday the airline confirmed that it was pressing on with acquiring the lightweight and fuel-efficient 787s despite production delays which have seen its arrival delayed until 2014.
The national carrier said it will buy seven new ATR72-600 planes from France’s Aerospatiale with options on another five for use on secondary domestic routes.
Fyfe said the domestic fleet upgrade was designed to improve services and bolster demand, with the new planes starting to arrive from late next year.
"This order potentially doubles the size of Air New Zealand's ATR fleet and will put a further two million seats into the New Zealand regional market annually," he said.
The carrier, which has a near monopoly on most domestic routes, currently uses ATR72-500 turboprop, Bombardier Q300, and Beechcraft 1900D planes on regional services.
It uses Boeing 737-300 and Airbus A320 aircraft on flights between the main cities, where it competes with Qantas budget offshoot JetStar.
