Air New Zealand Air Points - Air NZ may stay at home

Hey Ralph - I know the ACCC/Commerce Commission report was more negative than thought, but this is going a bit far...(from today's AFR)


Air NZ may stay at home
Apr 14
Annabel Hepworth and Toni O'Loughlin

Air New Zealand chief executive Ralph Norris said he was considering withdrawing the airline from international routes if its plan for an alliance with Qantas was barred.

Mr Norris said the airline would review its stance on international travel after it knew the final position from regulators on both sides of the Tasman, which have comprehensively knocked back the proposed alliance in draft determinations.

"We will review our position once we obviously have finality as to whether or not this alliance is going to be approved or not approved," Mr Norris told Channel Nine's Business Sunday, when asked if there was a possibility of an international withdrawal. But ACCC chairman, Allan Fels, said "it hasn't been seriously argued in front of us for whatever reason" that the carrier may become a purely domestic airline as a potential outcome of the trans-Tasman deal being rejected.

"I mean you can't just go on a TV program and say, well - oh well maybe we'll run that argument and see what happens," Professor Fels told the program.

The rejection of the alliance comes as the severe acute respiratory syndrome virus in Asia and the Iraq war continue to trammel demand across the industry.

Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific - one of Asia's biggest airlines, which has already cancelled 42 per cent of its schedule - sought to downplay further concerns about the impact of the SARS virus on its operations. After Reuters reported that an internal memo warned that the airline may consider grounding its passenger fleet next month if passenger numbers fall to less than 6000 a day, the company issued a statement saying it was not planning to ground the services.

What a thing to say, this guy don't value his job. Ralph, get with it, when will you start running a airline and stop running it like its Play SchooL??

Thanks for the cool post, It makes you wonder what adgenda these people have for our National Airline?? Maybee its a darn good thing, I say open the skys and bring in as many airlines as you can!

[This message has been edited by Mr.Staralliance (edited 04-14-2003).]

It's time Norris stopped talking his company down. No CEO of a private-sector company would be permitted by the shareholders to get away with that sort of nonsense. C'mon Aunty Helen, do something to make up for your disastrous recent behaviour. Tell Norris to pull his head in & get on with his job - making Air NZ the best darn airline in the world.

justakiwi

Isn't the concern over ANZ/Qantas alliance is the monopoly on Trans-Tasman route?

What does this have to do with the international flights?

Is Ralph Norris crazy these days?

I watched the interview in question on Sunday and my take on the conversation was that Ralph was trying to explain that all options were being considered and at the same time the interviewer was trying to get him to say something that would make a good headline.

There wasn't really all that much in his comments to be honest - and a slight bit of rhetoric on such a business show when you are trying to get something past the Regulators is to be expected.

Mind I wish someone would talk up the NZ shareprice - it is hurting me more than my index finger now.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jiml1126:
Isn't the concern over ANZ/Qantas alliance is the monopoly on Trans-Tasman route?

What does this have to do with the international flights?

Is Ralph Norris crazy these days?</font>

Trans tasman is international

When Virgin Blue start trans Tasman services, QF will put its low budget air subsidiary, Australian Airlines head to head with them. Air NZ & there subsidiary Freedom will be dead in the water.
QF are doing this with Syd-Bali from the end of July.

On the AKL-LAX route QF could increase capacity and lower prices. Air NZ's no 1 International route is AKL-LAX-LHR. We already have Au$1500 being advertised in Aust for Aust to USA from AA (in association with QF via Japan) & from Air NZ. Air NZ could not stand a long price war / low passenger load on this route for too long. QF's pockets are much much deeper



[This message has been edited by Mwenenzi (edited 04-14-2003).]

On the whole, I think Ralph Norris and his team are doing a d@mn fine job, however they seem to be continuing AirNZ's historically disastrous handling of PR. While I appreciate that they are trying to stress the importance to the airline of their tie-up with QF, they are playing a high-risk game of devaluing the brand - if, as seems increasingly likely, the deal doesn't go ahead, all his comments on record will make everyone think that AirNZ is a basket case and headed down the drain. I don't believe for a nanosecond that AirNZ would pull out of international routes in the absence of the QF/NZ deal - we might see some rationalising of routes but that is happening everywhere. It's just a PR scare tactic, and in my view a very dangerous and misguided one.

I thought CEO's were supposed to talk up the share price?

Maybe it is naive of me but if it was not because of the downturn due in part to the SARS epidemic at the moment, I would be hopeful of seeing Singapore Airlines getting involved in a partnership with NZ.
They are both *Alliance and I could see a useful synergy with both route maps and one big advantage to SG would be its access thru NZ rights of domestic routes in Australia.( I assume that this would hold true but I imagine QF would scream loud and long thru the hangar tops )
This would be a great resolution to the current issue but sadly, there are so many complicating international factors otherwise.
Ozflier

heh... Don't forget that SQ and NZ WERE in a partnership before. After SQ got itself badly burnt and had their stake in Air NZ cut to 4.6%, I don't think they're desperate to get back with Air NZ again!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by docpepz:
heh... Don't forget that SQ and NZ WERE in a partnership before. After SQ got itself badly burnt and had their stake in Air NZ cut to 4.6%, I don't think they're desperate to get back with Air NZ again!

</font>

Singaporean interests also held a significant share holding in Auckland Airport. That shareholding has been dumped.
Air NZ, & New Zealand as a country, cannot expect any Singaporean money or alliances

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by mad_atta:
..... I don't believe for a nanosecond that AirNZ would pull out of international routes in the absence of the QF/NZ deal - we might see some rationalising of routes but that is happening everywhere.... </font>

What is very likely is no Air NZ on many of the internationial routes they now fly, but the yellow tails of down market Freedom on these routes.

Air NZ manganment are down marketing and destroying the AirNZ brand. They have had experince in destroying brands: the great Ansett brand in Australia they killed. They could not even run last in last in a 2 airline race

Does the employees have the power to "oust" the current management if those executives intend to kill ANZ?