IT chief rises to top in Air NZ reshuffle

By CHRIS DANIELS aviation writer

The big winner in Air New Zealand's new, simplified management structure is chief information officer Rob Fyfe.

A former executive at National Australia Bank, Bank of New Zealand and Telecom, Fyfe was in charge of the team that spent the past few months analysing every facet of the Air NZ business, looking for ways to cut out costs.

His new title is "group general manager - airlines" and the individual managers of the airline operations report to him.

The role of CIO has been abolished.



Around seven old business units have been replaced by three main divisions: Airlines, headed by Fyfe, Ventures, headed by Craig Sinclair, and Sales & Marketing, headed by Norm Thompson.

New managers will be put in place for the airline's distinct operations, such as domestic, short haul (the Tasman and Pacific) and the long haul routes to Asia and the United States.

Freedom Air will come under the auspices of Sinclair, group general manager ventures.

Apart from the abolition of the position of chief operating officer, and the departure of Andrew Miller, there are few other obvious casualties from the management shake-up.

Miller had applied for one of the top new jobs, but was not successful and left the company on Monday.

He was often seen as an heir-apparent to Ralph Norris.

Brendan Fitzgerald's former role of senior vice-president customer services has been split in two, as he formerly also looked after airports and cabin crew.

He will be invited to apply for a job in the next tier of management.

Norm Thompson remains head of sales and distribution and takes on the job of marketing, but his former role of looking after regional airlines has gone to Fyfe.

Andrew David, former vice-president of strategy and planning, is looking after the route planning and revenue management jobs, previously done by Miller. His future role has yet to be determined.

Craig Sinclair previously looked after network logistics and flight operations, which included pilots. This is now being run in "airlines" by Fyfe. Engineering services will be Sinclair's primary role, but he will also be in charge of Freedom Air and terminal services.