Air NZ rues cost of strike during school holidays

Air NZ says the financial cost of this week's industrial action is less than $4 million, but the damage to the reputation of the airline and our country as a tourist destination is difficult to calculate.

Mere days after showing off the first of its new refitted Boeing 747-400 jets to the media and VIPs, Air NZ's longhaul business is being hit hard this week by the strike action from its flight attendants.

The union representing 1000 cabin crew has called the industrial action, with three 48-hour strikes beginning on July 18, 21 and 24.

Between 15 and 20 international flights a day will be cancelled. Air NZ has said it can only afford $7.5 million towards the union's proposal worth $14.2 million.

All direct services between New Zealand and Los Angeles, San Francisco and London are scheduled to fly on the proposed strike days. However, some services through the Pacific Islands to Los Angeles will be affected.

"We believe we've lost revenue in the region of $3 million to $4 million," said airline spokesman Ed Sims.

From this figure, the cost of wages, fuel and landing charges not incurred must be taken out, so the actual cost to the business was considerably lower.

The impact on the airline's reputation was extremely hard to quantify, said Mr Sims.

"Clearly what we're looking to do now is minimise the impact on the brand and on our image and reputation beyond the 26th of July.

"We're already hearing stories of large groups of school children left stranded in Osaka, for example. We know, from 29 years operating in Japan, that the Japanese can, as a nation, tend to be nervous, uncertain travellers. Anything like this that creates uncertainty for travellers - not just about Air NZ but about New Zealand as a destination - can take a long time to recover."

Mr Sims said he did not think it was a coincidence that the strike took place during the New Zealand school holidays. Priority was being given to destinations in Australia and the Pacific Islands to make sure New Zealanders' holiday plans were disrupted as little as possible.

In many cases passengers would have booked their flights up to 18 months ago.