Latest / Best of Business / Mike Williams: Air New Zealand Chief Transformation and Alliances Officer on the airline's new deal with Air Chathams

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Mike Williams: Air New Zealand Chief Transformation and Alliances Officer on the airline's new deal with Air Chathams · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk SEDB. Follow
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Now in New Zealand is finally dealing with one of
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  Speaker 2: those annoying things that's been bugging people who fly regionally.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: People can now book a single ticket for journeys that
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: combine a domestic flight with a regional flight operated by
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  Speaker 2: air Chathams. It means one booking, so the luggage is
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: checked all the way through to your final destination, even
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: when you swap carriers. Mike Williams is the New Zealand's
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Chief Transformation and Alliances Officer and with us hime Mike, Hi,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: how are you well? Thank you? So is this just
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  Speaker 2: the fucka tiny destination?
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  Speaker 3: Well, today's step one, but I hope there's a step
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  Speaker 3: two and maybe a step three beyond that. So it
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  Speaker 3: is as a start. It's we can think of it
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  Speaker 3: as a trial, really making sure that we have things
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  Speaker 3: set up and it works smoothly, because it's been a
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: long time since we've been able to put one of
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: these what we call interline arrangements together. But absolutely I
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: hope to see more of New Zealand connected in the future.
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  Speaker 2: And are you able to do it if you're flying internationally.
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  Speaker 2: So for example, I don't know, Let's say you're flying
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  Speaker 2: from somewhere in Australia into New Zealand and you're going
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  Speaker 2: to go through to Fakatana. Can you do it like that?
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  Speaker 3: At the moment, we're just looking at the domestic scope.
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  Speaker 3: But again I think it's a case for us of
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  Speaker 3: working super closely with their chatthems and the regions and
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  Speaker 3: then let's see what the future looks like.
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  Speaker 2: What's so hard about it?
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  Speaker 3: It just takes time. I mean, some of these things
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  Speaker 3: are operationally complex, and it's really thinking about what happens
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  Speaker 3: in the case of a disrupt and do the digital
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  Speaker 3: systems talk well to each other and have we trained
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  Speaker 3: all of our staff and things like that. So I
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't say it's difficult, but it's just one that we
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  Speaker 3: want to get right so that customers have a great experience.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: So is it more about the computers than it is
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: about actually picking up the right bag and chucking it
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  Speaker 2: in the right place.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's all of the above, really, But you know,
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  Speaker 3: the system is complicated and complex in some cases, so
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  Speaker 3: it pays to take a bit of time to make
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  Speaker 3: sure that things are done in a really seamless way.
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  Speaker 2: Why is it, Mike that I mean, correct me if
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  Speaker 2: I'm wrong. But this is normal overseas, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: It is normal, especially with international airlines. And I don't
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  Speaker 3: know what the exact number is. I think it's up
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  Speaker 3: to about fifty interline partnerships that we've got around the world.
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  Speaker 3: But it's much more normal when there's larger air lines
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  Speaker 3: connecting with other larger alnes. It's actually not that common
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  Speaker 3: to have these sorts of relationships domestically. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: today is a great day for air Chathams who have
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  Speaker 3: been serving amazingly well for many years. It's a great
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  Speaker 3: day for it's a great day for regions like this.
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  Speaker 3: And to your earlier question, I think the excitement is
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  Speaker 3: that we really look at this as a step one
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  Speaker 3: of a few steps.
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  Speaker 2: So why is it that it's it's more common with
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  Speaker 2: the big carriers than it is with the little ones.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just the nature really of where customers want
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  Speaker 3: to travel to. And generally speaking, domestic networks are more
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  Speaker 3: call at point to points, so you fly from A
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: to B and that gets you where you need to
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  Speaker 3: get to. There's less traffic that flows through hubs, and
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  Speaker 3: that's much more common internationally when you're connecting between Auckland
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  Speaker 3: through Singapore to get to somewhere else, for example. But
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  Speaker 3: there's no reason why it shouldn't work. And again, ultimately
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  Speaker 3: this is about connecting regions between Chatham's network with regions
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  Speaker 3: from in New Zealand's network as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Mike, thanks very much, really appreciate it. Mike Williams,
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  Speaker 2: Chief Transformation and Alliances Offer Officerity in New Zealand.
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