Former Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe says disruption marred winter here. Photo / Natalie Slade
Former Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe says disruption marred winter here. Photo / Natalie Slade
Former Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe believes airlines will continue to recover strongly from the pandemic.
Fyfe has been an independent director on Air Canada’s board for the past five years and while the airline rebuild has been hit by staff shortages and faces economic headwinds, airlines haveproven their resilience.
“The recovery globally, is still being challenged at the moment by manpower issues right across the system,” said Fyfe who was Air New Zealand’s chief executive from 2005 to 2012.
During the northern summer in particular there were problems in North America with air traffic control at airports and there continued to be problems at border agencies.
Although winter here was marred by disruption, he said relative to overseas it wasn’t too bad.
“I think in that regard Air New Zealand has spooled up pretty effectively and the New Zealand ecosystem has spooled up pretty effectively compared to other countries.”
Fyfe was in charge of the airline when revenue slumped by 17 per cent as the Global Financial Crisis hit in 2008. He believes the airlines that have emerged strongly from the even more devastating financial blow of Covid –19 will continue to grow, even though they face new financial headwinds.
Rob Fyfe led Air New Zealand for seven years. Photo / Natalie Slade
Even through recessions, airlines could grow at a slower rate.
“Our experiences at Air New Zealand coming out of the GFC was that airline travel still tends to grow right through recessionary periods.”
He also sees some good news for travellers who have faced steep increases in fares as the supply of aircraft hasn’t matched the demand from travellers, many unable to travel for more than two years.
“My personal view is everyone’s concerned about supply and demand which has really pushed them up as in the current environment. I would expect to see that stabilise to more normal levels by mid-next next year,” said Fyfe.
Airline appraiser IBA says a total of 63 airlines failed or restructured in 2020 and 2021, including a mix of domestic airlines, low-cost airlines and legacy carriers.
This series of failures and restructurings in the first part of the pandemic resulted in the temporary or permanent grounding of 1924 planes.
This means airlines are now flying more efficient planes. Air Canada retired its older Boeing 767s during the pandemic and other airlines have permanently parked up thirsty four-engine Boeing 747s.
“That’s a positive development that’s coming out of the pandemic. I’m personally pretty optimistic, that the industry is going to come out of this disruption in a stronger, more resilient state,” said Fyfe.
Among other interests in start-ups, Fyfe is launching a can manufacturing firm in Auckland.
Fyfe is also chairman of Michael Hill and was a special advisor to Prime Minister Jacinda Arden on New Zealand’s Covid-19 response and recovery plan.
Air Canada - in competition with Air NZ - has resumed passenger flights between Vancouver and Auckland after a two-year break, coming back with 50 per cent more capacity than before the pandemic.
Airline capacity is running at around 85 per cent of 2019 levels with about 90 million seats on sale over the next seven days, according to schedule analyser OAG.
It says these capacity levels will continue into the first part of next year.
