Air New Zealand is further cutting capacity across its network as COVID-19 coronavirus depresses travel demand; the airline placed itself into a trading halt yesterday to give it time to “more fully assess the operational and financial impacts of global travel restrictions” – as media reports in New Zealand spoke of the carrier shedding about 3700 jobs.
Air New Zealand confirmed it would be reducing capacity on its long-haul network by 85% over the coming months and would operate a minimal schedule to allow Kiwis to return home and to keep trade corridors with Asia and North America open. The carrier said full details of this schedule would be advised in the coming days.
Among the long-haul network capacity reductions, the airline advises it is suspending flights between Auckland and Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Buenos Aires, Vancouver, Tokyo Narita, Honolulu, Denpasar and Taipei from 30 March to 30 June. It is also suspending its London-Los Angeles service from 20 March (ex LAX) and 21 March (ex LHR) through to 30 June.
The Tasman and Pacific Island network capacity will significantly reduce between April and June. Details of these schedule changes will be announced later this week.
On the Domestic network, capacity will be reduced by around 30% in April and May but no routes will be suspended.
Customers have been advised that due to the unprecedented level of schedule changes they should not contact the airline unless they are due to fly within the next 48 hours or need immediate repatriation to New Zealand or their home country.
Chief executive Greg Foran says that while airlines face an unprecedented challenge, Air New Zealand is better placed than most to navigate its way through it.
“The resilience of our people is exceptional and I am consistently amazed by their dedication and passion for our customers,” Foran said yesterday.
“We are a nimble airline with a lean cost base, strong balance sheet, good cash reserves, an outstanding brand and a team going above and beyond every day. We also have supportive partners. We are also in discussions with the Government at this time.”
As a result of the downturn in travel Air New Zealand continues to review its cost base and will need to start the process of redundancies for permanent positions acknowledging the important role partnering with unions has in this process.
“We are now accepting that for the coming months at least Air New Zealand will be a smaller airline requiring fewer resources, including people. We have deployed a range of measures, such as leave without pay and asking those with excess leave to take it, but these only go so far. We are working on redeployment opportunities for some of our staff within the airline and also to support other organisations”.
Foran says the airline is “working constructively” with the heads of the four main unions representing more than 8000 of its workforce to ensure the right outcome for all staff.
“I would like to thank the leadership teams at E tū, AMEA, NZALPA and Federation of Air New Zealand Pilots for the way in which they are engaging with the airline and positively representing the interests of their members. These are unprecedented times that we are all having to navigate. And it is clear that if we don’t take all the appropriate measures to lower costs and to drive revenue, our airline won’t be in the best position to accelerate forward once we are through the worst of the impact of Covid-19.”
As part of Air New Zealand’s cost savings initiatives, the Board of Directors will take a 15% pay cut until the end of this calendar year. The trading halt continues to be in place after this announcement.
THE AIRLINE YESTERDAY SENT THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE TO ITS FREQUENT FLYERS:
The impact of COVID-19 on our way of life and the ability to conduct business across many of our industries could not have been predicted even just a few weeks ago.
It’s times like these that we cannot underestimate the collective power of working together and supporting each other. To that point, I want to thank all our customers for their patience and understanding as Air New Zealanders around the globe work tirelessly to keep customers flying or amend travel bookings.
Please contact us for urgent enquiries only.
As you can imagine thousands of customers are impacted by the latest round of travel measures introduced by Governments around the world.
Our priority is supporting Air New Zealand customers with immediate travel needs first. If you are not travelling within the next 48 hours we ask you to please hold off from contacting us directly for the time being. We are doing our absolute best to manage the high volume of enquiries we are receiving, including boosting the size of our Contact Centre and Social Media Customer Care teams.
Some tickets allow you to self-manage your booking online or via the Air NZ mobile app, so you don’t need to get in touch to change your booking.
If you have booked via a travel agent (including online travel agents), please contact your booking agent directly.
We’re keeping you informed as information unfolds.
As the situation changes on an almost daily basis at the moment, we want to ensure our customers are well informed. You might have noticed an increase in direct communications from us via email and our Air NZ mobile app to reduce the need to contact Air New Zealand directly.
Please refer to our FAQs in the first instance or check our Travel alerts page for up to date information and guidance about flight changes.
Thank you for your continued support.
You have our commitment that we are doing all we can in this unprecedented situation. And I want to thank you for your continued support and understanding as we work through this together over the coming weeks.
Ngā mihi nui,
Mike Tod
Chief Marketing & Customer Officer
Edited by Peter Needham
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