Lockout put airline on downward slide

By ANGELA GREGORY

Prime Minister Helen Clark traces the demise of Qantas New Zealand to the pilots' lockout of 1999 and the loss of travellers' confidence in the airline.

"I think the difficulty Ansett NZ and then Tasman Pacific were in was that debilitating lockout destroyed a lot of people's confidence in their ability to keep to the timetable - it certainly destroyed mine," she told a post-cabinet briefing yesterday.

"Busy people can't afford to have flights cancelled on them. I think that limited their building up a firm clientele again."

The pilots and management of the then Ansett airline were at loggerheads over a contract that would have made 35 pilots redundant and the remaining staff flying longer hours in an effort to cut costs.

But Qantas NZ pilots blamed the investors and management.

One former pilot said management had knowingly presented the pilots with an unacceptable situation in 1999.

"The Employment Contracts Act didn't help ... it just allowed them to run roughshod over us ... totally incompetent management is what is behind this collapse."

He said while Tasman Pacific was owned by some of the wealthiest men in New Zealand they had just "walked away" from the problems.

Tasman Pacific principal Sir Clifford Skeggs refused to comment yesterday.

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