Toomey quits Air NZ

Air New Zealand chief executive Gary Toomey has resigned.

Air NZ's chairman Jim Farmer said it was a sad loss to the airline but the company found itself in quite a different position to when Mr Toomey came on board at the beginning of the year.

"He has encountered a set of problems that were not of his making and has worked relentlessly to find answers to them," Dr Farmer said in a statement to the Stock Exchange.

"We have no criticism to make of him - or the management team he led - for what has happened and wish him well, wherever he goes now."

Roger France, a newly appointed Air NZ director, will act as executive director until a new chief executive is appointed.

Dr Farmer said the airline had come to a confidential settlement with Mr Toomey, which were "consistent with his contractual entitlements and benefits".

Mr Toomey said he believed the board's decision to place Ansett in voluntary administration meant the future Air NZ must set its sights on different goals from the ones that drew him to the company.

"I think it is appropriate for me to move aside, take a break with my family and consider some of the options open to me."

Mr Toomey said in the statement that he deeply appreciated "the literally hundreds of cards and messages I have received from staff and supporters during the difficult times that the group has gone through over the year".

Forsyth Barr Frater Williams executive director Don Turkington said Mr Toomey's resignation would put further downward pressure on Air NZ shares tomorrow.

The A shares closed down 10 per cent, 3c, at 30c, to meet the B shares which closed steady on 30c.

"It's just another uncertainty. It's not so much that Toomey is leaving but that there is no real replacement for him at this stage," said Mr Turkington.

"They haven't showed a lot of airline management depth through this crisis and at least Toomey was an experienced airline person," he said.

Mr France is a chartered accountant who recently retired as a senior partner in PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

"It's surprising that they couldn't keep Toomey until they could find a replacement."

Mr Turkington said that with the shooting having started in Afghanistan, the already ugly environment for aviation stocks had deteriorated further.

Speculative buying largely dried up on the sharemarket today with only 1.9 million Air NZ A shares traded and just over 2 million Bs.

- NZPA

nzherald.co.nz/aviation

nzherald.co.nz/travel