The airline’s leaders today said the fleet would be back at full strength soon.
But they told investors the financial year starting tomorrow would be a year for recovery and transition, and not necessarily profitable.
Ravishankar told investors punctuality and cost discipline would be major areas of focus.
“Over the last eight months, a lot has been achieved … We are already seeing runs on the board.”
The airline has cut flights on numerous routes and commenced layoffs this year.
Ravishankar, who took over in October, said engine performance and availability, grounded aircraft and jet fuel prices had been major headaches.
The airline is expected to lose up to $390 million before tax this financial year.
“This is not where we want Air New Zealand to be. But the important question is, what do we do about it?”
He said Air NZ had invested in important foundations, digital modernisation, upgrading aircraft interiors and operational infrastructure.
‘Road warriors’
Ravishankar said “business commuters and road warriors working for small businesses” were a must-win segment.
The airline faces competition on some domestic routes from budget carrier Jetstar.
Ravishankar said the business commuter cohort took on average four to five trips a year, with 23% flying at least once a month.
“On long-haul, it’s inbound premium leisure customers … who choose New Zealand as a bucket list trip and value a calm, distinctively Kiwi experience,” he added.
“There is a big opportunity in converting more offshore premium visitors to New Zealand and connecting them through our domestic and regional networks.”
Fleet
Air NZ has been leasing three Boeing 777 aircraft. File photo / Wikipedia Commons
Chief financial officer Richard Thomson said it would take 12-15 months for the airline to be freed from all associated costs incurred with leased aircraft and engines.
The delivery of two 787 Dreamliners from Boeing had been delayed from this financial year to the next.
But Thomson said the widebody model’s retrofit programme should be complete in November.
“As of last weekend, all of our 787s are now serviceable, and we expect the A321neo position to continue improving over the coming months,” he added.
The airline earlier today said no 787s were grounded, whereas up to five had previously been unavailable.
Two members of its A320/1neo narrowbody fleet were grounded, down from a peak of six.
Ravishankar this afternoon said the airline would get most aircraft back into the selling schedule as early as November.
“There’s quite a bit of crewing we need to orchestrate to make that happen, but we’ve been planning for that for a while,” he added.
“The bit that will just linger is we’ve got these three dry-lease 777 aircraft that we bought in.”
One of those will be retired shortly and returned to the lessor.
But the other two, the biggest aircraft in the fleet, would likely stay on until at least the end of the 2027 calendar year.
In dry leases, an airline typically got the aircraft but had to take care of crew, maintenance or insurance itself.
The airline today also said it had already delivered benefits from an organisational restructure and fuel efficiency work.
It said it identified another $100m of annualised savings, the benefits of which would accrue from the 2027 financial year onwards.
Meanwhile, the airline today announced Kris Cudmore would be its next chief financial officer.
He will take up the new role when Thomson leaves in early August.
Cudmore is currently the airline’s infrastructure, planning and commercial lead.
The airline said Cudmore previously had senior finance and transformation lead roles at Spark New Zealand and Telstra.
John Weekes is a business journalist covering aviation. He previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.
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