Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand posts half year loss of $72 million

The result is down from the $101m the airline reported for the same period in 2019.

Ongoing restrictions on international travel to and from New Zealand resulted in the airline’s operating revenue falling 59 per cent to $1.2b in the first six months of the financial year.

As at February 23, the airline had short-term available liquidity of just over $700m, consisting of about $170m cash and $550m of undrawn funds on a $900m Crown loan facility Air New Zealand secured at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Air New Zealand gives more time to use travel credits

The airline today announced that anyone who currently has fares in credit will have until the end of June 2022 to make a new booking using their credit.

Travellers will have until June 2023 to take any rebooked travel, instead of having to complete it by the end of 2022.

Air New Zealand chief of customer and sales Leanne Geraghty said in a statement that the airline wanted to give more time for people who may want to travel beyond the Pacific or Australia.

She said the airline's domestic network is now running at 80 percent of its pre-Covid-19 capacity.

Air NZ reflects on $454 million loss in 2020

It reported a $454 million loss for the year ended June because the Covid-19 pandemic clipped its wings.

Air New Zealand's international flights dropped from more than 30,000 in 2019, to under 10,000 last year.

Overall passenger numbers fell from 17.6 million to 8.4 million.

It brought in more than 10 million items of PPE gear to help with the Covid-19 response, while its cleaning staff used over 45,000 litres of disinfectant on aircraft.

Chief executive Greg Foran said returning to normal levels of air travel would be complex.

Air NZ hiring 115 more crew as it braces for tougher border requirements

The news comes swiftly after the airline confirmed that 40 long haul crew were last week recalled on fixed term contracts to accommodate changes to its international schedule, including new layover protocols for North American flights.

The recruitment drive is in addition to 175 narrowbody cabin crew being recalled from furlough in preparation for Tasman and Cook Island travel bubbles, and the hiring of regional cabin crew on fixed term contracts in four centres.

Air New Zealand crew isolating after testing positive in China

The staff member tested negative to the virus in New Zealand on 18 November but on arrival in Shanghai on 22 November returned a positive test.

Air New Zealand said the person was well and had no symptoms of Covid-19 - all other crew have returned negative results.

It said the positive case would remain in isolation while Air New Zealand and the Ministry of Health worked with Chinese authorities to bring the person home.

"Operating crew on layover in China go into a managed isolation hotel as a standard procedure.

Air New Zealand offers cheap fares over summer

The $60-and-under seats are available from the second half of November until mid February and are available to all of the airlines domestic locations.

Air New Zealand says the school holidays gave tourism a big boost and hopes the fares will encourage further travel.

Last month the national airline announced it was tapping into the $900 million government loan on offer to help it through the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In August Air New Zealand announced it posted an after-tax loss of $454m - one of the biggest corporate losses in New Zealand in recent memory.

Air New Zealand CFO Jeff McDowall resigns

The airline's chief financial officer, Jeff McDowall, has given notice he will leave after the completion of a planned capital raise mid-next year.

McDowall had been with the national carrier for more than 20 years, and was acting chief executive before the arrival of Greg Foran earlier this year.

Air New Zealand to strengthen finances in first half of 2021

The airline is now drawing on the $900 million government loan which is giving it time to tool at future options.

In a statement to the stock exchange, the airline said it was looking at how the Covid-19 pandemic may develop and the effect it would have on its operations, costs, aircraft needs, and capital needs.

It said the review should be done by early next year and if there was no further bad news caused by the pandemic it would plan to raise fresh capital by the middle of next year.

Air NZ sells 70,000 seats in six hours after rules relaxed

As soon as the announcement was made that distancing would no longer be required on planes, Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran says the airline immediately made more tickets available.

"That put on the market about 160,000 more seats."

In six hours, the airline sold 70,000 seats yesterday, he says.

Foran told Morning Report this is what happens when the airline has the opportunity to operate the domestic airline at full potential.

During level one, the airline's prices increased by 13 percent.

Air NZ grounds Boeing 777 fleet due to Covid-19 impact on travel

In May, the airline grounded most of its seven 777-300 aircraft until the end of the 2020 calendar year. It signalled it was unlikely to fly its eight 777-200 aircraft in the foreseeable future and began preparing to send these into long term storage overseas.

In a release, the airline said four of the aircraft will be stored in Victorville in the Californian desert and three would remain in Auckland where they can be used if required.