Norris' glitter a sign of things working at Air NZ

By CHRIS DANIELS aviation writer

Ralph Norris apologises for the five-minute delay in meeting the Business Herald for an interview and asks to be excused if there is any glitter still on his face.

He has just come from Air New Zealand's annual Koru Care flight, where a group of selected children - some sick, others underprivileged - are given a scenic flight in a Boeing 747, which flies at often low altitude around the North Island.

Norris says he expects there were a few surprised sunbathers on Coromandel beaches that afternoon - thinking themselves to be well off the major flightpaths of international airlines.

It has been a tough year for Norris, 53, who took over as chief executive of the embattled airline in February. When he arrived at the top job, he was presented with the results of a just-completed "staff satisfaction survey".

The results did not make for pretty reading. For a start, says Norris, only 29 per cent of staff even bothered to respond.

And they were not enthusiastic about working for the pride of the Pacific - 91 per cent said they had no confidence in management, 90 per cent felt the company had no strategy and 90 per cent felt the company did not value them.

People felt almost ashamed they worked for the airline, he says.

"I believe that the only way any company is successful in the long term is having very good staff relations. No company can expect to have good customer relations without good staff relations."

Although the results of the latest survey have yet to come out, Norris says that within a few months, more than half of the staff had decided to start answering the survey.

He says the company is much more people- and customer-focused than before.

Norris speaks proudly of the effort that went into preparing the airline for the introduction of its Air New Zealand Express domestic service.

That project was now being studied by other global airlines looking to emulate its success. Removing the business-class seats and hot meals, moving to low-cost fares and pushing bookings towards the internet was designed to stimulate the domestic market by 20 per cent.

Results for last month show a jump in domestic travel of 27 per cent.

But the past few months have been tough - parts falling off planes and an engine failure have heightened safety concerns.

All this has come at the time Norris and the board were trying to convince a sceptical public that an alliance with Qantas is the only way to secure Air New Zealand's future.

He will be fighting that fight throughout next year, a year that he hopes will be even better than his first 12 months in the job.

"Results for the company have exceeded what my expectations were at the beginning of the year. Morale is at a very high level."

To demonstrate this rebirth of company spirit, Norris describes an email that was waiting for him when he arrived at work two days ago.

"She was wishing me a Merry Christmas and saying thank you for making me proud of the company again."