Domino effect hits contractors

By CHRIS DANIELS

It took far more than pilots and groundcrew to keep Qantas New Zealand flying.

Yesterday, workers far from the runway found the damage from the collapse of the airline had spread.

Pacific Flight Catering, which supplied all the meals to Qantas NZ, had just told 70 workers at its Christchurch and Wellington bases they had lost their jobs.

Fifty staff of Logistix Services, set up by two managers of the former Ansett New Zealand, have also lost their jobs running almost all terminal services at Hamilton, Rotorua, Palmerston North and Invercargill Airports.

Now all those people who collected the tickets, loaded the bags and ran the business for Qantas New Zealand in those towns are out of work.

While the 1100 Qantas New Zealand workers knew quickly their jobs were going, it took a few days for the damage to reach the contractors.

Pacific Flight Catering company director Terry Hay said the quality of food and service on Air New Zealand would now decline to the level of "cheese and a cracker if they felt like it" that prevailed before Ansett New Zealand started providing competition.

Ross Bubbins, a senior ground steward for Pacific Flight Catering at Christchurch Airport, has lost his job after 12 years' service.

His wife has also lost her job.

While the axe had fallen quickly for him with the collapse of Qantas New Zealand, other workers would soon start feeling the effects, he said.

Michael Barnett, chief executive of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, said many of the Qantas New Zealand suppliers had continued working with the airline in "good faith."

He hoped the airline's shareholders had "personally looked at their options to pay some of the debts faced by long-term suppliers."

The whole thing gave a bad image to business, he said.

The shareholders Mr Barnett refers to are the group of multimillionaire investors who bought the airline last year.

"Shareholders and their management would have known for some time that the receivership was coming and that there were many suppliers of goods and services who were keeping the business alive - in good faith and without the information that management and shareholders have."

Mr Barnett said suppliers now faced the prospect of personal hardship because they had believed in the good name and integrity of the shareholders.

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