Latest / Best of Business / Nikhil Ravishankar: Air New Zealand CEO says the airline's committed to receiving a regional subsidy from the Government

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Nikhil Ravishankar: Air New Zealand CEO says the airline's committed to receiving a regional subsidy from the Government · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: Evening coming up with the next hour. We've had met
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  Speaker 2: about that and then we'll head off to the UK
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  Speaker 2: at seven past six. Now, we had the global Microsoft
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  Speaker 2: outage this morning, disrupting websites around the world and one
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  Speaker 2: of the companies that was affected was of course in
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand. Some flights were delayed as a result, and
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  Speaker 2: we have Nicol Ravashank in New Zealand's new chief executive
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  Speaker 2: and studio with us right now. Hey Nicole him well,
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  Speaker 2: thanks if you managed to sort out this morning's disruption.
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  Speaker 3: We have the teams have done an incredible job dealing
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  Speaker 3: with what's been a sort of global outage has impacted
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  Speaker 3: a lot of big organizations around.
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  Speaker 2: So is everything running to time now?
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  Speaker 3: Buy and large, everything's running today right by.
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  Speaker 2: Eighty Zealand standards.
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  Speaker 3: We are. We're very proud of the fact that, you know, well,
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  Speaker 3: I'm very proud of the fact that everyone who works
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  Speaker 3: at the airline takes punctuality very seriously.
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  Speaker 2: I'm so sorry, Like, what a way to start this,
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  Speaker 2: ste You're just straight in there with a low blow.
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  Speaker 2: I'm sorry, prepare yourself. You're going to get alongssarily in
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  Speaker 2: the next five minutes. From the above, So, what did
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  Speaker 2: the guys have to do? They just have to do
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  Speaker 2: the manual boarding, did they Yep.
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  Speaker 3: We call it BCP or Business Continuity Plans, And so
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  Speaker 3: they're kicking to action a bunch of people across the airline,
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  Speaker 3: So teams all around the airline actually have to have
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  Speaker 3: to go into plan B mode. Yeah, and it's a
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  Speaker 3: well rehearsed sort of thing that we do. Operations center,
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  Speaker 3: airport staff are pilots and cabin crew of course, the
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  Speaker 3: digital teams. Yeah, and what they're pulled off today is
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  Speaker 3: absolutely incredible.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, do you know what the other day I was
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  Speaker 2: jumping on a flight, and you know, like I got
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  Speaker 2: into the habit of showing them because you're bored with
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  Speaker 2: it as you get onto and you walk across the
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  Speaker 2: air bridge and then you get on the plane and
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  Speaker 2: then you show them the ticket again. And they were like,
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  Speaker 2: we don't do that anymore. Is that a thing?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we've stopped doing that.
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  Speaker 2: So I don't have to show them that I'm sitting
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  Speaker 2: in one sea. I can just look over to one sea.
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  Speaker 3: No, we trust that you know you're on the right.
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  Speaker 2: Thank god, Nichol. Is this a you thing?
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  Speaker 3: It was a greg thing actually, but God for that.
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  Speaker 2: It was ridiculous like that. We were just like like
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  Speaker 2: double handling, won't we.
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  Speaker 3: Well, every second counts and you know, one of the
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  Speaker 3: big aspirations we have is to be in the top five,
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  Speaker 3: if not the top three airlines around the world as
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  Speaker 3: far as safe on time performance is concerned.
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  Speaker 2: Well, good luck with that now. Thank you. Thanks, You're welcome,
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  Speaker 2: cheering you on as a customer. Talk to me about
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  Speaker 2: this regional subsidy. Are you really wanting regional subsidy from
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  Speaker 2: the government.
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  Speaker 3: We'll come nine days in the job. Yeah, And if
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  Speaker 3: there's anything that's clear in my mind is the fact
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  Speaker 3: that in New Zealand is incredibly critical for New Zealand's success,
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  Speaker 3: and that it's a complex business, right, But at the
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  Speaker 3: core of it, our purpose for being is to connect
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  Speaker 3: New Zealanders to each other, in New Zealand to the world.
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  Speaker 3: And that's more important here than anywhere else in the
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  Speaker 3: world because so much of our GDP relies on aviation,
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  Speaker 3: be it within the country or connecting New Zealand to
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  Speaker 3: regions around the world. So all of those things are
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  Speaker 3: extremely important and that's what I'm sort of focused on doing.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 2: So they've shut you down already though, haven't they. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: Nikola Willis has shut you down. David Siemill shut you down,
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  Speaker 2: Chris Luxon shut you down. So what do you do now?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think there is so much alignment
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  Speaker 3: in what we're all trying to achieve, and quite genuinely,
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  Speaker 3: what we all want is to see New Zealand that's thriving,
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  Speaker 3: an economy that continues to grow, where we can create
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  Speaker 3: connections and trade and uh with with within the country
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  Speaker 3: and across the world. And just yesterday I was at
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  Speaker 3: the Tourism Industry Association event, right and there's a group
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  Speaker 3: of people who are you know, representing teams. It's Team
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand and it's best frankly, and one of the
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  Speaker 3: things that we're all trying to do Government Tourism Operators
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  Speaker 3: us A New Zealand is double tourism's contribution to National GDP.
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  Speaker 3: So I think no one's shutting anyone down. We're all
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  Speaker 3: rowing in the same direction, but they're all on team.
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  Speaker 2: They were like, no regional subsidy. You need to sort
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  Speaker 2: it out yourself if you if you're going to shut
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  Speaker 2: down a regional route as a Timaru.
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  Speaker 3: Look, I think there are parts of New Zealand that
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  Speaker 3: rely on air travel as their primary form of connectivity.
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  Speaker 3: Be it to Moru, be it Hokatika, be it Gisbon,
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  Speaker 3: be it Kerry Kerey. You know we take flying in
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  Speaker 3: and out of those regions extremely seriously. We know that
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  Speaker 3: it is a lot more than a commercial decision. It's
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  Speaker 3: a lifeline service at times, and we will do everything
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  Speaker 3: we can and everything we should be doing to ensure
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  Speaker 3: that connectivity remains.
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  Speaker 2: So would you shut down to Maru?
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  Speaker 3: There are no plans to shut down to Maru?
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  Speaker 2: Is it one of the first ones? Because I hear
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  Speaker 2: that's not doing very well.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's not even in the option set of things
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  Speaker 3: that I'm currently considering good.
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  Speaker 2: So then you don't need the regional subsidy if you're
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  Speaker 2: not thinking about shutting it down.
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  Speaker 3: As I said to you, we're all focused on ensuring
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand are connected to each other. And New Zealand's connected.
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  Speaker 2: But I would argue, as a tax payer which has
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  Speaker 2: a you know, a shareholding any New Zealand, your primary
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  Speaker 2: job is not to connect. Your primary job is to
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  Speaker 2: make money, isn't it?
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  Speaker 3: If only life with that simple health, I wish it was.
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  Speaker 2: But question on that, why is Quantus doing so much
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  Speaker 2: better than you guys?
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  Speaker 3: Look, that's a question for for quantas they operate in
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  Speaker 3: a very different market to the one we.
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  Speaker 2: Operate in, but also the same market.
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  Speaker 3: To an extent. They were you know, operate out out
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  Speaker 3: of New Zealand, but their main focus isn't isn't New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: We operate in a very different market under different market dynamics.
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  Speaker 3: We've also, you know, got a very young fleet. We've
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  Speaker 3: been investing in the long term health of the business.
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  Speaker 3: We're operating in an economy that is starting to turn yeah,
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  Speaker 3: but you know, the last few years have been fairly
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  Speaker 3: difficult for us getting out of COVID and and let's
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  Speaker 3: not forget we've had the incredible bad luck of having
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  Speaker 3: engine troup, which means twenty percent of our fleet is
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  Speaker 3: currently grounded.
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  Speaker 2: So you've been unlucky, right, there's an element of being
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  Speaker 2: unlucky here.
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  Speaker 3: It's been tough.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, how's your first two weeks as chief executive.
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  Speaker 3: It's been a thrilling ride. It has been very full on,
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  Speaker 3: but it's also you know, when you think about the
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  Speaker 3: reasons you'd want to do this job for me, I
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  Speaker 3: decided a while back that I dedicate my career to
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  Speaker 3: a New Zealand Inc sort of a set of challenges
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  Speaker 3: and doing a job like this is one of the
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  Speaker 3: great honors really, if that's what you want to do,
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  Speaker 3: because you can actually have a major impact on the
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  Speaker 3: future of the country. And what a privilege to do
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  Speaker 3: a job like that too.
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  Speaker 2: Right, well, listen, I can only wish you well, Nicol,
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  Speaker 2: and it's lovely to meet you, and thank you very
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  Speaker 2: much for coming in and beast of luck with running
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  Speaker 2: the company and hopefully you're luck turns Nicol Revshenker, Chief
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  Speaker 2: executive in New Zealand.
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