Completely agree that we need a compensation scheme for delays. While we accept excuses such as it would lead to less flights or higher fares we potentially ignore the significant costs caused by loss of time, rescheduling commitments etc etc. The arrogance displayed by the monopoly provider seems to be exponentially increasing and it seems to come from the highest levels. There seem to be many operational decisions for the benefit of the carrier that don’t fully acknowledge customer inconvenience. The messaging to customers also seems to frequently lack transparency.

One would think that the current governments acknowledgement of the importance of time and productivity (reprioritising road networks, increasing speed limits …) would also mean that they want to incentivise the major air travel provider to be efficient and to provide reliable service.

It is unlikely that the government would want to take a larger shareholding but perhaps there needs to be to be another ownership model. While selling down their shareholding would have significant risk in terms of loss of services the current model is clearly not working.

The aircraft plan in the latest presentation is extremely worrying as it is likely that in the medium term there will need to be significant capital injection or there will have to be a reduction in services in any case.

I laughed recently when I saw a newspaper article comparing service performance between Air NZ and Jetstar - the article said it didn’t document regional cancellations for Air NZ as there was no comparator!

I am not sure who the ‘shareholding minister(s)’ are for Air NZ but it would be interesting to hear what there expectations are for the Directors and thus the Board. I am glad I am not an individual shareholder but I think there are many serious issues which need urgent attention and the recent shareholder presentation suggests there is either a lack of ability, a lack of insight, or a belief that a glossy marketing presentation will suffice.