Voice of experience

April 1st 2025

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When Air New Zealand CEO, Greg Foran, tendered his resignation to the airline’s board in March, he offered some words of operational wisdom to his yet to be announced successor. Read More »

Foran, who will step down as CEO of the 51% government owned airline at its AGM in October, said top of the list of the airline’s challenges is the still necessary extended groundings for MRO on Rolls-Royce engines powering the carrier’s 787s and P&W engines on the airline’s A320neo fleet.

“That’s not going to improve,” Foran said.

At press time, weight was added to Foran’s forecast with the news Air New Zealand (Air NZ) shrank capacity in March by 4.8% due to maintenance requirements on engines powering its fleet. Domestic capacity was lower by 4.1% in the month compared with a year ago and long-haul available seat kilometres were reduced 6.9% in the 31 days. The Star Alliance member has cut ASKs each month this year and for 10 of the last 11 months. “Capacity reductions in the month and year-to-date periods are driven by reduced aircraft availability from global additional engine maintenance requirements,” Air NZ said in a regulatory filing. Last month, the airline said 11 aircraft were grounded at the time due to the maintenance checks. The flag carrier flew 1.6 million passengers in March, 7.2% fewer than the 1.7 million travellers flown in the same month in 2024. Trans-Tasman and Pacific Islands services were down 1.2% year-on-year due to lower domestic demand, the airline added.