New Air NZ chief lures colleagues

By DANIEL RIORDAN

New Air New Zealand chief executive Gary Toomey has confirmed the addition of two former Qantas colleagues to his top management team.

More Ansett Australia accounting and IT jobs would also move from Melbourne and Adelaide to Auckland and Mexico.

As predicted by the Business Herald last week, Mr Toomey has tapped Qantas' former deputy chief financial officer, Adam Moroney, to replace John Dell as chief financial officer from next month.

Kevin Turnbull will rejoin Air NZ in a new role as group general manager of business performance enhancement. He has spent the past six years at Qantas, most recently as group general manager operations services.

In addition, Jochen Bonitz, formerly chief executive of internet company Pacific International (Australia), has been appointed group general manager e-commerce.

These moves follow the appointments in recent weeks of George Frazis, a former vice-president and director of Boston Consulting Group, as Air NZ's executive general manager strategy, and a former Australian Department of Transport deputy secretary, Peter Harris, as general manager of government and international affairs.

Meanwhile, Ansett Australia is doing away with 186 positions in Melbourne and Adelaide, most going to IT jobs in Mexico and the rest to accountancy work in Auckland.

The changes will be completed within 12 to 18 months.

They follow last year's decision to transfer 46 head office jobs from Melbourne to Auckland and open a targeted voluntary redundancy scheme for potentially all of Air New Zealand's and Ansett Australia's 23,000 staff.

Air NZ is integrating the operations of Ansett Australia, acquired in June, and trimming its workforce.