Air New Zealand Announces Redundancies

Air New Zealand Announces Redundancies

Air New Zealand announced today that it will disestablish up to 200 full-time jobs.

Chief Executive Officer Rob Fyfe says the areas affected are long haul cabin crew, recruitment, airline operations and technical operations planning and management.

Mr Fyfe says the airline has been reducing capacity to match customer demand over the past few months and as a result has been reviewing staffing levels.

“We have been working hard on a series of initiatives to minimise the need for redundancies. These include pilots taking leave without pay, giving staff on individual contracts the opportunity to work fewer hours, introducing part-time hours for cabin crew, not replacing non-safety sensitive roles, not renewing temporary contracts and a freeze on executive salaries,” he says.

“However, it has become clear that these measures will not fully address the excess staff levels we now have as a result of these capacity reductions, especially in the long haul business where capacity is being reduced by eight percent when compared with the last financial year.”

Mr Fyfe says Air New Zealand will commence consultation to disestablish up to 100 long haul cabin crew positions along with six jobs in recruitment and seven jobs in the airline operations area. Separate reorganisations are underway in subsidiary businesses, including Safe Air in Blenheim, with a small number of redundancies expected.

“We are also implementing a further phase of the technical operations restructure, which started in 2006. This will see up to 68 roles in the technical, planning and management areas disestablished to meet the new shape of the business and its current demand profile.”

Mr Fyfe says annualised savings from the redundancies and a current review of all spending should be in excess of $20 million. It is expected that the majority of the redundancies will be achieved on a voluntary basis.

“A hallmark of Air New Zealand’s success over recent years has been our ability to be nimble, adapt our business to market conditions, contain costs and simultaneously invest in innovative products and services to better meet the needs of our customers. We will continue to be relentless in our drive to deliver an inspiring and uniquely Kiwi experience to our customers at everyday low prices.”

Among the innovations Air New Zealand has delivered over the past year are a quicker domestic airport experience utilising world-leading technology, improved seat pitch and food and beverage offerings on domestic jet services, new in-flight entertainment systems on aircraft operating on the Tasman and Pacific Islands and an enhanced loyalty programme.

ENDS

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