Airline ponders shift to Mangere

By CHRIS DANIELS

The Air New Zealand management is looking at a plan to move the airline out of its downtown glass tower headquarters and closer to the jet fumes at Auckland International Airport in Mangere.

While not part of the cost-saving strategy announced this week, the airline is actively studying how much it can save by moving to offices at the airport.

Auckland International Airport, which owns much of the surrounding land, has been trying for years to convince the airline to move to Mangere.

An airline spokesman said no decision on moving offices had been made.

Many of the airline's operations, including its engineering base, are at the airport. Other big airlines, such as Singapore and Qantas, have their corporate headquarters at their home airport bases.

It is understood Air New Zealand's lease on its present offices in Quay Tower has at least another year to run. A decision to move may depend on how quickly it can trim its back-office staff as part of its drive to get rid of 1500 positions.

Extra commuting time and other perceived disadvantages of an airport site may encourage some city-based workers to take early retirement or redundancy.

Much of the attraction of the Quay Tower location was ruined when its owner, AMP NZ Office Trust, built the PricewaterhouseCoopers tower in front of it, blocking most of its harbour views.

AMP said in its latest annual report that the tower was partly empty and it was having to spend a lot of money refurbishing it to draw new tenants.

Many of its leases were coming up for renewal in the next year.