Air NZ insider named as second in command to Norris

By DANIEL RIORDAN aviation writer

Air New Zealand has named Andrew Miller to the new position of chief operating officer.

Miller was vice-president strategy and planning and before that held senior roles within the airline that included running Ansett domestic and overseeing the radical overhaul of the New Zealand domestic operations in the late 1990s. He will deputise for managing director and chief executive Ralph Norris. Norris said Miller would continue his strategy role with responsibility for network and revenue management, marketing and alliances and Freedom Air.

The airline has been criticised in the past for not having a clear second-in-command. When long-time chief executive Jim McCrea left abruptly in mid-2000, there was no obvious successor within the company and the position was filled by former Qantas chief financial officer Gary Toomey.

Miller was believed to have been on the short-list of candidates for Toomey's job after he left last October but Norris, then an Air NZ director, made a late decision to apply and got the job in February.

UBS Warburg aviation analyst Timothy Ross said Miller's elevation acknowledged his prominence within the company.

"With Air NZ having signalled pending changes in its domestic and short-haul international strategies, they're going to need somebody with that sort of management change experience and vision to run the whole process."

He said most airlines around the world had no clear number two, because it was not clear from which parts of an airline's business the chief executive should come.

"This appointment suggests Miller might be the anointed successor because the role typically sits over the functional management positions."

Norris has given no indication he intends running Air NZ for anything but the long term. But after a successful career at ASB Bank and other corporate roles he would have no shortage of choices.