An Air New Zealand charter flight on the return leg of a roundtrip from Frankfurt to Auckland via Vancouver is now transporting five specialist engineers to New Zealand, where they will assist Wellington Water with urgent repair work on two of Wellington’s wastewater pipelines.

Wellington Water approached Air New Zealand for its support in transporting essential personnel to the country for this critical repair. Flight NZ6011 is the return leg of one of a series of flights chartered by the German Government to repatriate German citizens from New Zealand. Today’s service from Frankfurt is expected to touch down in Auckland this evening (NZT).

Air New Zealand’s chief operational integrity & standards officer, Captain David Morgan, said ” We are delighted to have been able to help solve a problem for the region by transporting this team of engineers. The timing has been managed to work in with our last repatriation flight to Germany, which meant we were able to collect the team in Frankfurt for the return flight to Auckland.”

“Bringing in experienced international expertise for this operation was a key component”

Stephen Wright, manager of major projects at Wellington Water, said “Repairing these pipelines is a complex engineering challenge, as the bursts occurred deep beneath Mt Albert. Wellington Water has worked with a specialist engineering firm in Germany to design and manufacture polyester pipeline sleeves specifically for the Mt Albert pipes.

Given the importance of the installation, and the fact this will be the largest-scale implementation of this technology in Australasia to date, bringing in experienced international expertise for this operation was a key component of our arrangements with the manufacturer. Air New Zealand has been hugely helpful in enabling us to bring this team of specialists over from Germany.

“On arrival, the team will be quarantined in Auckland for 14 days”

Wright went on to add: “We have prepared travel logistics and a full isolation programme to ensure the technicians present a very low risk to New Zealanders, and themselves remain safe from the virus. This programme includes pre-flight screening, in-flight and transit physical distancing, self-contained transport and accommodation, and comprehensive site procedures. Upon arrival, the team will be quarantined in Auckland for 14 days and will then relocate to Wellington to begin work. We’re grateful to Air New Zealand for their support, which will enable this critical wastewater network repair to take place.”