Air New Zealand in Covid limbo as rival carriers restart

While Qantas and Virgin Australia stand up their workforce in readiness for a busy summer, across the ditch it’s a very different story.

Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran has warned any further extension to the planned reopening of New Zealand’s borders could prove very damaging. Picture: Hannah Peters / Getty Images

While Qantas and Virgin Australia prepare their staff in readiness for a return to a busy summer of flying, across the ditch Air New Zealand is facing more difficult months ahead.

After another tumultuous year, Auckland at least will reopen for domestic travel on Wednesday, and in mid-January fully vaccinated New Zealanders will be able to return from Australia.

From mid-February that courtesy will be extended to New Zealanders in other countries, and then to fully vaxxed international travellers at the end of April.

The timeline means New Zealand will be one of the last countries in the world to reopen, putting the Kiwi carrier at a distinct disadvantage.

Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran said he was hopeful the dates might be brought forward as vaccination levels rose, and warned it would be disastrous if the opposite occurred.

“I don’t think it’s helpful if New Zealand stays closed for a long ­period of time,” Mr Foran told The Weekend Australian.

“At this stage I think we’re OK but you wouldn’t want to be having this conversation in March or April and having significant indecision because people make ­choices and if they can’t come to New Zealand, they will go somewhere else.”

Mr Foran’s cautious comments came as the International Air Transport Association demanded an immediate end to travel bans, in line with World Health Organisation advice.

The call from IATA managing director Willie Walsh followed the reintroduction of restrictions by multiple jurisdictions in response to the Omicron variant.

“Blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods,” Mr Walsh said.

Although Mr Foran was not convinced New Zealand’s conservative approach to the pandemic had damaged the airline, he said it was hoping for some certainty about the restart of international travel early next year.

“If we found ourselves in a situation where in the middle of the year the All Blacks are playing the Irish and people in Ireland aren’t sure whether they’ll be able to come and people in the US are thinking about where they’re going to go for their winter next year and New Zealand is on their list but they’re not sure, eventually it does hurt you,” he said.

What the drawn-out timeline for New Zealand’s reopening had done for the airline was provide plenty of time to retrain pilots and ensure aircraft were fit to fly.

Mr Foran said once international borders came down, flights to North America, Australia and the Pacific Islands would be the first to take off.

“We want to get into China. We’re going there every day anyway but it’s predominantly cargo so we’ll just have to wait for them to open up,” he said. “Japan is critical to us, so is Singapore, but we won’t be going back to South America, we won’t be reopening to London and we’ll be thoughtful about where else we go.”

As the Covid crisis showed signs of easing, Mr Foran was all too aware even greater challenges lay ahead for the airline, in the form of the 2050 net zero emissions target.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce described the sustainability challenge this week as like running a marathon and having to perform open heart surgery along the way.

Mr Foran said reaching net zero emissions was the single biggest challenge the airline industry would face over the next decade or so. “We recognise this is an incredibly difficult problem, one that airlines cannot solve alone,” he said.

“We’re going to need support from other players in this area, whether it’s suppliers, whether it be the government, but if we’re ­seriously about fixing it now is the time to get on and do that.”

He said Air New Zealand would soon start bringing in some sustainable aviation fuel, and flying long-haul planes with that.

Originally published as Air New Zealand in Covid limbo as rival carriers restart