In an exclusive interview with Travel Weekly, Air New Zealand’s chief customer officer, Jeremy O’Brien, addresses some of the issues around the airline’s flight capacity.
Speaking to Travel Weekly general manager Hoda Alzubaidi at Air New Zealand’s 85th birthday celebrations yesterday, O’Brien began by emphasising the importance of trade for the airline.
“Trades a really important channel for us. It’s over 50 per cent of our sales in the Australian market, so it represents a huge amount of our distribution,” he said.
One of the primary ways Air New Zealand is supporting its trade partners is through education.
“First and foremost, providing great tools and education for the trade has always been something we’ve focused on,” he said. “So, we have our duo platform which trade can access, which has a whole lot of training modules within it, including all the latest information about new routes and new products. The more we can give the trade the information and understanding of our offerings, the better they can represent us in the market.”
On the subject of commission, O’Brien emphasised Air New Zealand’s wish for a win-win relationship with the Australian market.
“Ultimately, when you can win and your partner can win, that’s the best environment you can be in. And so we always look to provide partnerships where there is that mutual benefit,” he said.
“What we try and do is focus on the commonalities we have and try and build and grow areas of mutual interest and mutual benefit between us and the trade. I’m really proud of the partnership we have here in the Australian market. I’ve been with Air New Zealand for nine years, and I believe this is one of the most positive relationships we have.”
When asked about the airline’s flight capacity, O’Brien doesn’t shy away from some of the issues Air New Zealand has faced.
“We’ve had the challenges with our narrow-body Pratt & Whitney engines and the wide-body Rolls-Royce engines well documented,” he said. “The good news is that that’s starting to ease.
“We’ve done a couple of things to maintain as much capacity as possible. Firstly, we brought three additional lease aircraft into the fleet,” he said. “We now have several lease engines that we’ve brought in. What you’ll see is that our narrow-body fleet availability is going to improve.
“Next week, you’ll get an announcement from us about a new route here between New Zealand and Australia,” he adds cryptically.
“Towards the end of June, we received two new international A321s, and so they will be deployed on our short-haul network, allowing us to put more capacity on the Tasman as well,” he added.
Whilst Air New Zealand recently made headlines for removing capacity from its Tasman route, O’Brien said this will be reversed in the next 12 months.
“We’re very conscious that we would have wanted to have grown capacity a little bit more than what we’ve been able to date. But we’re starting to see the opportunity to grow,” he said. “And I think you’ll see over the next probably 12 months, four to six per cent capacity growth on the Tasman from us.”
Looking forward, O’Brien is not shy about the airline’s bid to go after premium flyers.
“You’ll start to see a real increased focus on premium cabins,” he said. “We’ve just started our retrofit program with the Dreamliner aircraft. The first of those has just started flying and, by the end of the year, seven of our 14 Dreamliners will have been retrofitted. By the end of 26, they will be fully retrofitted. That represents a 27 per cent increase in the density of the cabin, from a premium cabin perspective.
“By the end of by the 2030 we will increase our premium density within cabins to 30 per cent across our wide body fleet. We’re very much going after that premium leisure traveller. We think that’s the right thing to do, because that segment of the market is more resistant to fluctuations in demand. They seem to be more recession-proof.”
Not only is this good news for Air New Zealand, but also for its partners.
“It’s also great for trade partners, because ultimately they want to be able to sell a good product and it helps them to run a profitable business.”
