The Herald asked Young if he would resign.
It also asked that if Young provided erroneous information on this matter in the RNZ interview, how the public could have confidence that other information provided on the August 16 incident was accurate.
Chief executive of the Aviation Industry Association (AIANZ), Simon Wallace, told the Herald he was “disappointed” Airways did not clarify at an earlier stage that the system was actually maintained internally.
Young addressed the AIANZ conference last week, but Wallace said the situation wasn’t clarified during that event.
“Indeed, there was no mention of this at the AIANZ conference last week in Wellington and it is only through questions from the media this matter has been clarified,” Wallace said.
Airways NZ sent a statement yesterday evening.
“We acknowledge there has been some confusion regarding James’ comments during his Radio New Zealand interview.”
It said Airways was already known to develop its own software.
It said New Zealand was among a “handful” of countries where the air navigation service provider gave support, maintenance, design, and software development for air traffic management platforms.
“We are proud of this capability and our reputation is well established across the industry.”
Airways said it operated several critical systems and maintained relationships with vendors of these systems, even when it maintained or developed that platform itself.
New Zealand’s oceanic airspace, known as the Auckland Oceanic flight information region, covers an area almost four times the size of Australia.
Airways said its Oceanic platform was one of the very few systems that Airways purchased but maintained with no input from the original vendor.
“Airways’ Oceanic air traffic control platform was originally purchased over 25 years ago.
“Airways assumed full responsibility for the software and has extensively developed it in-house since then.”
It said the original vendor had no involvement for more than two decades, and at no point was it blamed for the August 16 disruption.
“James will not be resigning,” an Airways spokesperson said.
“While he misspoke in one instance, this does not constitute misleading the public. Airways has been clear that responsibility for the disruption rests with us, not any vendor, and we remain committed to transparency and accountability.”
Airways added: “Given the historic nature of the relationship with the Oceanic platform, we have not named the vendor to avoid breaching any contractual confidentiality obligations that potentially still exist, as we have been unable to verify these.”
It said Young’s interview with RNZ took place shortly after the disruption, before the full details of the historic vendor relationship for the Oceanic system were clear.
“In that context, he misspoke in suggesting there had been contact with the vendor, and we acknowledge this error.”
The SOE added: “At the AIANZ conference, James addressed an informed industry audience, already familiar with much of this background, and focused on the recovery process and next steps for Airways.”
Airways said the August 16 disruption was unprecedented.
“A full review continues to identify the root cause.”
John Weekes is a business journalist covering aviation. He has previously covered consumer affairs, crime, politics and courts.
