KEY POINTS:
Air New Zealand is axing 200 jobs in a new cost-cutting drive.
Airline chief executive Rob Fyfe said the jobs will go from long-haul cabin crew, recruitment, airline operations and technical operations planning and management.
He said the airline had been reducing capacity to match customer demand over the past few months and as a result has been reviewing staffing levels.
"We have been working hard on a series of initiatives to minimise the need for redundancies," he said in a media statement.
"These include pilots taking leave without pay, giving staff on individual contracts the opportunity to work fewer hours, introducing part-time hours for cabin crew, not replacing non-safety sensitive roles, not renewing temporary contracts and a freeze on executive salaries.
"However, it has become clear that these measures will not fully address the excess staff levels we now have as a result of these capacity reductions, especially in the long haul business where capacity is being reduced by eight per cent when compared with the last financial year."
Consultation is about to start on losing 100 jobs from long haul cabin crew, six from recruitment and seven in the "airline operations area".
Separate reorganisations are underway in subsidiary businesses, including Safe Air in Blenheim, with a small number of redundancies expected.
Up to 68 jobs in the technical, planning and management areas are also going from the airline, which is majority Government owned.
Fyfe said savings from the redundancies and a current review of all spending should be in excess of $20 million a year. The majority of the redundancies would be done on a voluntary basis.
The union that represents many of those affected by the announcement, the Flight Attendants and Related Services Association, was not available to comment.
- NZ HERALD STAFF
