Air China will suspend its Beijing-Brisbane flights from 24 August to 31 December due to a shortage of aircraft stemming from the ongoing issues with the Trent 1000 engines that power its fleet of Boeing 787-9s.
The Star Alliance carrier flies thrice-weekly on the route using Airbus A330s, FlightGlobal schedules show. Air New Zealand codeshares on the route.
Air China tells FlightGlobal that it has had to divert its A330s onto other routes that are usually operated by 787-9s, which has led to the temporary suspension of the Brisbane route.
Its services from Beijing to Panama and Zurich, as well as the Shanghai-San Jose service, have also been disrupted due to the Trent 1000 issue.
Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that Air China operates 11 787-9s, 30 A330-200s and 29 A330-300s.
FlightGlobal schedules show that Air China is the only carrier on the Brisbane-Beijing route, however the Queensland capital is connected to Guangzhou, Shanghai and Shenzhen with flights operated by China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Hainan Airlines, respectively.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
