11/02/12, 23:19:36 EST

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New deputy CEO looks to restoring Air NZ's international status

stuff.co.nz

Norm Thompson put up his hand to become Air New Zealand chief executive when Ralph Norris quit two years ago, but lost out to Rob Fyfe in the final dash to the tape.

His appointment as Fyfe's deputy on Tuesday shows something of the measure of the man.

Since 2001 - and arguably before - the revolving door at the top echelons of the national air carrier has been turning faster than a 747 jet engine. But Thompson, who joined Air NZ nearly 40 years ago as a school leaver, survived.

Like the airline itself, he emerged from turbulent times with his reputation enhanced, both among his airline peers and those in the tourism industry.

It was widely assumed an internal candidate would succeed Norris, with most likely names being Fyfe and Craig Sinclair, both airline group general managers. In the end, it was Thompson, who was in marketing and sales at the time, who landed on the short list with Fyfe. "And yes, I was disappointed when I didn't get the top job," he told the Star-Times .

Sinclair left Air NZ in February last year to pursue personal business interests, and Thompson was appointed group general manager short-haul airlines within the new regime.

Fyfe quickly established a reputation for running a lean, fast-paced culture and until a month ago his only top executive appointment was Nathan Agnew, a career high-flier 20 years Thompson's junior, to spearhead strategic development.

Then, when Thompson returned from a seven-week stint at Stanford University in California, Fyfe tapped the veteran on the shoulder.

Co-incidentally, the appointment comes as Thompson was re-elected chairman of the Tourism Industry Association for a second term.

Thompson has seen a good few Air NZ chief executives come and go. "But Rob brings sharp and strategic thinking and a new dynamic which I haven't seen in previous CEOs," he said .

Thompson said his new job meant sharing Fyfe's task of building on the rescue work done by Norris, and taking the airline to "the next level".

A decade ago, Air NZ was consistently rated as one of the world's classiest airlines. That reputation took a huge hit with the failure of Air NZ-owned Ansett and the near failure of the airline itself.

"We went through a period when our competitors had better equipment than we had," said Thompson. "They were tough times when we couldn't invest as we wanted to."

Now Thompson sees the airline starting to reclaim its former international position. "We can see that as we monitor our position within the Star Alliance."

He said the next big thing for the airline was not beating off the challenge of new domestic competitor Pacific Blue.

"We are not afraid of competition and we'll step up to the mark," he said. "We have delivered lower air fares for four years now, and we have increased domestic business 42% in that time."

The real circuit-breaker, he said, will be the introduction of the new Boeing 787 Dreamliners, and 777-300s on long-haul routes from 2010.

The Triple 7s will allow Air NZ to scrap the ubiquitous 747s from 2012.

"The introduction of these aircraft is going to be an enormous project around people and pilots, about coming up with the next generation of seating and aircraft interiors," said Thompson.

And part of his brief before then will be to seeinbound passenger numbers and tourism to match domestic growth.

"A lot of Air NZ's future growth in terms of numbers is going to come from the inbound market," said Thompson. And that involved not so much work around the airline itself, but ensuring the country had the infrastructure to handle the growth that may come from new markets such as China, India and Canada.

"We can't look at this from an isolated Air NZ point of view," said Thompson. And it is clear his links with the tourism industry will play an important part in developing this strategy.

Although Air NZ is confident it can deal with Pacific Blue, it is also ensuring there are no chinks in its armour. The focus is now on making the actual journey simpler and more enjoyable.

"We need to work with airport companies so we can get people from their cars into planes without having to go through the whole queueing process," said Thompson.

Net-booked tickets already give passengers a seat allocation. The next move will be to electronically tag frequent-flyer luggage which could be delivered straight on to conveyor belts. The airline's technology would then match the bag's tags with information it held on where that traveller was flying.

Grounding its budget airline Freedom Air from March, announced by Thompson on Thursday, is part of the same drive.

Trans-Tasman and Pacific Island flights will now be flown by regular Air NZ services, with altered seating configuration to allow economy class travellers more space.

As far as price goes, Thompson said there was now little difference between Freedom and Air NZ fares.

The loser will be direct services from New Plymouth to Sydney and Brisbane, which will be axed.

 Printable Version  | published Sep 09, 2007