Tourism lifelines survive Air NZ purge

By SCOTT MacLEOD transport reporter

Regional leaders breathed a sigh of relief yesterday as Air New Zealand decided on just a minor trimming of its internal services.

Domestic capacity will be reduced by 0.7 per cent, meaning tourist lifelines will survive the big cuts that will hit the airline's overseas flights, and jobs.

The airline's decision sparked joy from centres such as Gisborne, Marlborough and Dunedin.

The chairman of the Regional Tourism Group, Oscar Nathan, said it was "fantastic news" after much uncertainty.

Air NZ confirmed that it would start shedding 10.5 per cent of its "seat kilometres" from Saturday, mainly on the Sydney-Los Angeles route.

It would cut the equivalent of 800 out of 9200 full-time jobs over several months.

A total of 14 flights between Sydney and Los Angeles from October 13 to October 30 have been scrapped, and 24 flights next month.

Four flights between Auckland and Los Angeles have also been shelved, on November 14 and November 21.

Air NZ usually flies Sydney-Los Angeles-Sydney once a day, and Auckland-Los Angeles-Auckland 10 times a week.

Spokesman Mark Champion said some transtasman flights would be cut, but details were still sketchy.

The domestic cuts were still being worked out.

Most of the international cuts have been caused by a drop in travellers to and from the United States since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

One Auckland Airport worker said Air NZ's jumbo jets were usually packed with nearly 400 people on flights to Los Angeles or London, but last week there had been only 195 people on some flights.

"We're really starting to notice it," she said.

"It's pretty scary."

Mr Champion said it had yet to be decided which parts of the airline would be hit by job cuts.

The airline would look at leave, overtime, part-timers and temps, and seek voluntary redundancies, but it was likely some people would lose their jobs.

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