The airline is expected to lose up to $390 million before tax this financial year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not where we want Air New Zealand to be. But the important question is, what do we do about it?\u201d<\/p>\n
He said Air NZ had invested in important foundations, digital modernisation, upgrading aircraft interiors and operational infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u2018Road warriors\u2019<\/p>\n
Ravishankar said \u201cbusiness commuters and road warriors working for small businesses\u201d were a must-win segment.<\/p>\n
The airline faces competition on some domestic routes from budget carrier Jetstar<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ravishankar said the business commuter cohort took on average four to five trips a year, with 23% flying at least once a month.<\/p>\n \u201cOn long-haul, it\u2019s inbound premium leisure customers … who choose New Zealand as a bucket list trip and value a calm, distinctively Kiwi experience,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a big opportunity in converting more offshore premium visitors to New Zealand and connecting them through our domestic and regional networks.\u201d<\/p>\n Fleet<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The delivery of two 787 Dreamliners from Boeing had been delayed from this financial year to the next.<\/p>\n But Thomson said the widebody model\u2019s retrofit programme<\/a> should be complete in November.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of last weekend, all of our 787s are now serviceable, and we expect the A321neo position to continue improving over the coming months,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n The airline earlier today said no 787s were grounded, whereas up to five had previously been unavailable.<\/p>\n Two members of its A320\/1neo narrowbody fleet were grounded, down from a peak of six.<\/p>\n Ravishankar this afternoon said the airline would get most aircraft back into the selling schedule as early as November. <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s quite a bit of crewing we need to orchestrate to make that happen, but we\u2019ve been planning for that for a while,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bit that will just linger is we\u2019ve got these three dry-lease 777 aircraft that we bought in.\u201d<\/p>\n One of those will be retired shortly and returned to the lessor.<\/p>\n But the other two, the biggest aircraft in the fleet, would likely stay on until at least the end of the 2027 calendar year.<\/p>\n In dry leases, an airline typically got the aircraft but had to take care of crew, maintenance or insurance itself.<\/p>\n The airline today also said it had already delivered benefits from an organisational restructure and fuel efficiency work. <\/p>\n It said it identified another $100m of annualised savings, the benefits of which would accrue from the 2027 financial year onwards. <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the airline today announced Kris Cudmore would be its next chief financial officer.<\/p>\n He will take up the new role when Thomson leaves in early August.<\/p>\n Cudmore is currently the airline\u2019s infrastructure, planning and commercial lead.<\/p>\n The airline said Cudmore previously had senior finance and transformation lead roles at Spark New Zealand and Telstra.<\/p>\nAir NZ has been leasing three Boeing 777 aircraft. File photo \/ Wikipedia Commons<\/p>\n