Air New Zealand

Cam Wallace will step down from 30 September but will continue to provide support to chief executive Greg Foran until the end of the year.

In a statement, Foran said Wallace, who has been with the airline for 19 years, told him that he wanted to pursue other opportunities for his global career ambitions given the airline had now effectively become a domestic carrier.

Foran praised Wallace for his contribution, saying the airline's passenger and cargo revenues had experienced growth under his leadership.

Air New Zealand is about to dip into the government loan after reporting huge losses yesterday.

The carrier reported the biggest corporate loss in recent history and its first loss in 18 years - a deficit of $454m for the year ended June compared with the previous year's $276m profit.

Much of the loss centred on the costs associated with 4000 redundancies, asset writedowns and grounded planes. Stripped of these one-off costs, the underlying loss was $87m.

The carrier reported an after-tax loss of $454 million for the year ended June compared with the previous year's $276m profit.

Much of the loss was because of write downs in the value of planes, and restructuring costs as it cut costs and sacked about 4,000 staff, which altogether totalled $541m.

Stripping out one-off costs its underlying loss was $87m against $387m profit, as revenue fell 16 percent to $4.84 billion. The airline has received more than $100m in wage subsidies.

Their products are desperately needed in the islands and some are perishable. But, they are being taken off with no warning given.

Blair Krill from exporting company SAMEX Ltd, which sources a wide variety of products from suppliers around New Zealand for Pacific customers, said 95 per cent of its business is done in the islands and its taking a devastating hit.

“Air New Zealand quite frankly don’t give a damn, our freight rates have gone up 300 to 400 per cent," he said.

In an update on its earnings expectations, the company said the recent move to alert level 1 has enabled the airline to slowly restart the domestic network, however revenue and earnings are significantly lower than expected prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It said it was now expecting an underlying operating loss of $120m.

But there are other significant one-off items which will boost the bottom line result.

The company is estimating re-structuring costs, including redundancies, will be between $140 and $160m

In a message to staff, chief executive Greg Foran said international travel made up two-thirds of the company's revenue and that was gone now for the forseeable future.

The airline is now expecting to earn less than $500m year. Before Covid-19, Air New Zealand had annual revenue of around $5.8 billion and a profit of $374m.

Foran said the only way the financial situation would improve was if New Zealanders embrace domestic travel after the lockdown was over.

From the end of March until the 31st of May the airline will only fly to three countries from Auckland, once a week.

In a statement, Air New Zealand said there will be one return service to Nadi, one return service to Rarotonga, and one return service to Niue.

Routes to Tonga and Samoa have been suspended.

Norfolk Island will have two services a week, one from Brisbane and one from Sydney.

The phrase kia ora is a Maori greeting and the trademark attempt has sparked anger from the indigenous community.

The airline said it wants to trademark the magazine logo, not the phrase itself.

The New Zealand Maori Council described the move as "cultural misappropriation" and "frankly despicable".

The council is a statutory body set up to represent the Maori community.

"My warning to Air New Zealand is I sure as hell will put a stop to this," head of the council Matthew Tukaki said.

Some New Zealanders with Maori heritage wear tattoos to mark their genealogy and heritage.

The airline said from 1 September, all employees will be able to display "non-offensive" tattoos at work.

It said there was growing acceptance of tattoos, particularly as a means of personal expression.

The airline's tattoo restrictions attracted criticism and some accused it of hypocrisy for using other aspects of Maori culture - such as language and symbols - in its marketing efforts.

Air New Zealand pulled flights out of Port Vila in January 2016 citing concerns over the state of the runway.

However there have been various repairs since then and airlines such as Virgin Australia have resumed services.

During a visit to Port Vila Mr Peters said he was aware of the important part tourism played in the local economy.

The minister said the visiting delegation is returning home fully apprised of the situation and they will be making their thoughts well known to Air New Zealand.