Air NZ boss says blocking bookings 'exactly the right thing to do'

Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran. Photo / Michael Craig

Air New Zealand boss Greg Foran is not ruling out getting compensation for agreeing not to accept any new international bookings for the next three weeks.

The Government announced the move today as way to manage the number of people staying in its managed isolation facilities.

Foran told Newstalk ZB's Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB the airline was not cancelling any international flights, but had agreed to not sell any more seats for the next three weeks.

Currently, the airline has 5400 passengers already booked on flights during that time and is running an average of 35 flights a week.

Foran said there were no plan to bump anyone from flights this week, but it might "potentially" have to look at rebooking people's travel from next week.

He said the possible booking changes would not impact "lots and lots of people" and the airline would be talking with customers on a case-by-case basis.

The national carrier's new boss said it would deal with the revenue loss at a future stage, but receiving compensation from the Government was still a possibility.

"I'm very confident we will end up on the right side of the ledger for all concerned."

Foran said his discussions with the minister in charge of isolation facilities Megan Woods was that all airlines were following the same approach.

"I'm sure they are in discussions with them and they will come to the right solution".

He denied being pushed around by the Government and believed the airline was doing "exactly the right thing to do".

Foran took over the top job in February just as coronavirus started impacting travel. He had previously been the chief executive and president of US Walmart.

The company has already made 4000 redundancies in response to the impact of Covid19 on its business.