Air New Zealand eliminates hundreds of cabin crew jobs

Air New Zealand has confirmed the loss of nearly 400 cabin crew jobs that had been under review over the past two months.

The lack of international flights means that 385 crew members will be laid off in December.

The airline said today that it had also decided to close a license agreement with 550 international cabin crew. These job losses had been included in the totals published earlier this year.

Air New Zealand’s chief operating officer, Carrie Hurihanganui, said the airline’s international hours remained severely limited by border restrictions.

“Unfortunately, there are not enough flights to provide sustainable rosters for the number of international cabin crew we have.”

He said the consultation with the crew has now been completed and that the airline would go ahead with the reduction of around 385 full-time equivalent roles.

Due to the terms of two different collective agreements for the international widebody crew, in order to solve those layoffs, it has now had to close a licensing agreement with around 550 international cabin crew who finished working on the business in July.

Roughly 4,000 Air New Zealand employees out of roughly 12,500 had lost their jobs since the start of Covid-19, which includes 550 international cabin crew on leave.

“We are working closely with our unions to see if there is a different way that we can provide this crew with a way back to Air New Zealand,” Hurihanganui said.

Unions have been concerned about the firing of airline personnel and the use of Shanghai-based crews.

He said the Shanghai crew base was contracted by Air New Zealand through Foreign Airlines Service Corporation (FASCO), which is a government agency in China.

” It is a requirement of the Chinese authorities that Chinese citizens be recruited through this organization. However, Air New Zealand regards and has always treated this crew as Air New Zealand. ”

None of the 58 Shanghai-based crew members were currently operating after being laid off in February.

The New Zealand-based cabin crew currently operated limited flights to Shanghai. “

This difficult period has seen the airline cut staff across the company.

Union Etū had previously criticized the decision to make further cuts at Air New Zealand, asking the airline to stop outsourcing.

E tū aviation chief Savage said there is no operational reason for Air New Zealand to maintain a crew base in Shanghai.

“For the company to focus on immediate labor costs, regardless of the big picture, is shortsighted and detrimental to all aviation workers.”

Savage said the airline and the jobs it provides are a vital piece of New Zealand’s infrastructure.

Comments were requested from E tū today.

Air New Zealand reported an underlying loss of $ 87 million for fiscal 2020, compared to earnings of $ 387 million last year.

Covid-19 has eliminated its first half result and pretax statutory losses, which include $ 541 million of other major items, were $ 628 million, compared to last year’s $ 382 million profit.

The after-tax loss was $ 454 million.

The airline has benefited from wage subsidy payments of $ 75 million through the end of June and another $ 40 million since then. It has been paid $ 21 million from the government’s transportation subsidy plan that runs through the end of the year and has supported more than 250 charters.

The International Air Transport Association says airlines can’t cut costs fast enough to cover a significant cash burn to avoid bankruptcies and preserve jobs next year.

Total industry revenue in 2021 is expected to decline 46% compared to the 2019 figure of $ 838 billion (NZ $ 1.2 trillion), according to the International Air Transport Association.

This is a much bleaker outlook than it was at the beginning of the year, when revenue was estimated to be down about 29 percent compared to last year.

This was based on expectations of a recovery in demand in the fourth quarter of this year, but a resurgence of Covid-19 in the second and third waves around the world has slowed air travel.

The association expects full-year 2020 traffic to decline 66 percent compared to last year.