Air New Zealand boss Greg Foran accepts that improvement needed on delays

Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran says the airline is still suffering fallout from the pandemic. Photo / Michael Craig

Cancellation rates at Air New Zealand are falling but the airline’s chief executive Greg Foran acknowledges delays for passengers are frustrating and have to be reduced.

Speaking on Kerre Woodham’s Newstalk ZB show, Foran also said he could understand the frustration at being bused to destinations when flights are cancelled, but the airline was meeting its obligations if it did get passengers to where they needed to get to within a reasonable time.

In response to a question about charging fees on debit cards, Foran said the policy wasn’t going to change as it would have to look for other ways of making up that revenue.

One caller said he had been delayed on 23 out of 24 domestic flights he’d been on this year and questioned the airline’s on-time performance.

On-time performance (OTP) is an industry-wide measurement, defined as flights that arrive at their destination within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival time.

Foran said the cancellation rate had fallen to 3.2% of all flights and punctuality was improving.

Figures released earlier this year show that in the January to March quarter, Air NZ OTP for domestic jets was 81.4%.

But the caller said: “You just don’t book a meeting around an Air New Zealand flight.”

One recent flight was due to get him from Palmerston North to Auckland at 1pm, but a plane breakdown meant a bus trip to Wellington to catch another flight and he didn’t make it back home until 1am.

“You got me home, which is great – but I’ve only had one flight on time. It’s shocking,” the caller said.

Foran said while averages could show improvement, every single case was different and the airline was concentrating its efforts on improving punctuality. It had been hit with engine maintenance problems on its domestic jet fleet and other supply chain issues were still affecting it, he said.

‘‘It is a top priority for us to get that sorted.’'

The caller said it was especially frustrating because the cost of travel was going up – including Koru membership.

“We’re paying an extra $200 for that and you can’t get us there on time,” the caller said.

Foran said there would be other cases where people’s experience of punctuality had been good.

“Our objective is you got to leave on time, you got to arrive on time. We’ve got to make sure we don’t lose anything in between. There will be cases where we can’t and you accept that and I accept that but overall it’s got to improve.”

In response to another caller who had paid hundreds of dollars for a flight only to have it cancelled and taken by bus to his destination; Foran said: “Obviously, it is not our preference – we’d much rather that we got you there by plane, [but] we’re fulfilling our obligations of getting you there.”

Not everyone would have been paying hundreds of dollars, “quite a few” would have paid $80.

“There are times that these things happen and they are beyond our control, but most times we do get people to where they need to get to.”

On charging for debit cards, Foran said the airline incurred some administrative costs.

“We’ve got a charging structure and that’s how it operates.”

Foran also reassured listeners with power wheelchairs (which can weigh around 140kg) that it wasn’t the airline’s policy to charge for them and it would look at ways of making international check-in smoother for those who need them.

Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.