Air New Zealand is ensuring to defend its market share on key routes, despite its aircraft issues, as ceo Greg Foran explains the challenges are temporary.
“While they may not resolve this year or even next, they will abate, and we’re determined to be in an excellent position when that happens,” he adds.
His comments come as NZ reports a stable performance across most markets in the first half of this year.
North America is seeing solid underlying demand, particularly in premium cabins, and Foran adds Asia continues to stand out as a bright spot, with markets like Japan, Bali and Singapore performing strongly. He says he’s also really pleased with demand for Tasman and Pacific markets. “Overall we’re feeling good about most areas of demand. We remain focused on maintaining our momentum across all markets ensuring we’re well positioned to captilise on opportunities as fleet constraints gradually subside.”
. . . Domestic
Domestically, results are mixed, but Foran says he believes NZ has ‘seen the bottom’ and will be adding capacity on domestic routes to ensure it supports customer needs.
. . . Upgrades
NZ is continuing to invest in upgrades, with its first 787 in Singapore now undergoing what Foran says is the world’s first end-to-end interior retrofit. “We’ll have that aircraft back in about a month or two, and by this time next year, we expect more than half of our existing Dreamliner fleet to be retrofitted.” A highlight of the modernised cabin interior includes the latest business premier luxe seats.
