Air New Zealand rewards staff with shares as another loss looms

Air New Zealand will give workers $1000 worth of shares in the airline, despite facing another big loss in the 2021 financial year.

Air New Zealand employees are being rewarded for their service during the pandemic with $1000 worth of shares in the airline.

Air New Zealand will reward workers for their labour during the pandemic with $1000 worth of shares for every employee.

The “bonus” was announced as part of a market update by the airline, forecasting a full-year loss before tax of $417 million.

It follows a $421 million loss in 2020, and the axing of 4000 workers.

CEO Greg Foran said it had been a challenging 12 months but the carrier continued to have “a strong core” in its domestic and short-haul businesses.

Domestic capacity had returned to 90 per cent of pre-Covid levels, and the trans-Tasman bubble had helped lift capacity across the ditch to around 70 per cent.

Mr Foran said he was immensely proud of the way employees had responded to the Covid-19 crisis, and wanted them to have the chance to benefit from the airline’s future success.

“Some pilots and crew spent more than 100 days in isolation to help reunited thousands of overseas Kiwis with their loved ones,” he said.

“Our cargo team has helped take 100,000 tonnes of New Zealand product to the world. Day-in, day-out our people have done and continue to do everything they can in challenging and changing conditions to keep our customers safe.”

Around 8000 workers would be eligible for the share offer, which followed 15 months of reduced salaries at Air New Zealand.

On Friday, Air New Zealand shares were trading at $1.51, after sinking to a low of 81 cents at the height of the pandemic.

Mr Foran said a full recovery remained “some time away” but the share offer recognised that the airline would not get there without the contribution of employees.

The carrier also announced it would push back delivery of the first of eight new Boeing 787s from 2023 to the 2024 financial year.

Another annual loss was expected for the 2022 financial year although the “outlook remained uncertain”.

Meanwhile Sydney Airport said it was also seeing a positive increase in trans-Tasman travellers following the start of two-way bubble on April 19.

Passenger figures for May showed 88,000 international travellers passed through Australia’s biggest gateway, the highest since March 2020.

Domestic passenger numbers were slightly down on the previous month due to the Victorian lockdown that took effect on May 27, but still well up on a year ago at 1.35 million compared to 62,000 in May 2020.

Originally published as Air New Zealand rewards staff with shares as another loss looms