Air New Zealand Reputration Taking a Hit

November 18, 2022

Leanne Geraghty, Air NZ chief customer and sales officer, said the airline was hit by high inflation and fuel up 70% on pre-Covid, rising Covid cases and limited capacity which made flights busier than usual, on top of unprecedented demand for travel particularly to regional airports.

“We know things aren’t operating as smoothly as we want them to as we experience some growing pains in terms of service and schedule, but there is a company-wide effort to get us back to the Air New Zealand people know and love,” Geraghty said.

“While we’re not there yet, the airline has bought back 2200 staff since January and our two new planes that are hitting tarmacs around New Zealand add 200,000 more seats per year.”

Airlines priced the last seats at a higher rate to ensure seats would be available for customers requiring urgent travel, she said. High demand meant the cheaper seats were selling out quickly, leaving only the last, higher priced seats.

Call wait times were on the decline with more people hired and getting up to speed, “but we recognise people shouldn’t have to wait to get through to us”, she said.