KEY POINTS:
The Civil Aviation Authority has been lacking direction and needs to find its way again, its incoming director says.
Steve Douglas, now general manager of government relations for the authority, begins as CAA director on Friday.
The aviation safety watchdog, which establishes flying safety and security standards and does crash investigations, has been in turmoil in recent years.
It has been the focus of several critical Audit Office reports and seen senior executives face calls for their resignation after Christchurch coroner Richard McElrea's findings on the 2003 Air Adventures crash, which killed eight people.
Late last year a CAA-commissioned report highlighted differences between the then director John Jones and his senior managers, reluctance by staff to take on board recommendations from previous reports, and "considerable tension" between the authority and the director.
The CAA has had an almost complete overhaul in recent months, with Mr Jones retiring and the authority's chairman and his deputy also departing.
"There is a rebuilding job to be done," Mr Douglas said.
"That is not a major rebuilding job; it is mainly about the direction and purpose of the organisation, and adjustments to be made to some of the functions that we carry out ...
"My role is to provide that leadership and direction and purpose for the staff which I feel is the most important element that is missing, and has been a factor in our recent history."
Mr Douglas has worked for Air New Zealand, and spent some years in England where he worked in commercial satellite design. Since returning to New Zealand, he has had 12 years' senior management experience at the CAA.
He said he would shortly announce a new management structure for the CAA. However, the immediate issue was restoring public confidence in the organisation charged with ensuring the safety and security of air travel, he said.
"I want our staff and the travelling public to know that the organisation understands what we are here to do, why we do it, and who we do it for. Those are the important things.
"We have some way to go, definitely, in the general aviation area, and that's really where the public attention has focused on the CAA in recent years. We've got work to do there, not in all aspects of general aviation, but in some of them."
The safety performance of the commercial airline sector was excellent and stacked up well in world comparisons, Mr Douglas said.
The CAA now had to ensure it did that job well, and extended that level of performance into all areas of the aviation industry.
That meant looking at certifications and safety monitoring.
