Passenger numbers at Auckland Airport's domestic terminal are two-thirds of last year. Photo / Peter Meecham
Passenger numbers at Auckland Airport's domestic terminal are two-thirds of last year. Photo / Peter Meecham
THE INSIDER
Stay up-to-date with The Insider, a weekly column featuring what's happening behind the scenes in business.
For just over the headline price of two Jetstar bargain fares to Wellington, Auckland Airport can help domestic travellers with their bags and get their gate on time.
Rates start at $39 for theservice which is also available to the trickle of passengers through the near-empty international terminal.
It has boosted its concierge service through social media this week, where fees range up $150 per service depending on the number of people in a party. Concierges leave any wheelchair work to airlines.
Pre-Covid, the concierge service was popular with international travellers, particularly those facing language difficulties and the airport says its domestic premium product is popular with older people and those needing an extra set of hands to help with baggage as well as those who want assistance through check-in and security and with finding their gate.
Negotiating the terminal is easier as it is not suffering previous overcrowding as going into the summer peak, passenger numbers are down a third.
The airport used to have a squad of volunteers - the Blue Coats - to give friendly tips on how to get around terminals but because of the Covid-19 risk they were retired in March and haven't come back.
The company points out they never did the same work as the paid concierges and says it still has staff to provide advice, without the fee.
The airport has seen passenger numbers and revenue plummet,
S&P Global Ratings says there is unlikely to be a ''firm recovery'' for Auckland and other Australasian airports for at least a year.
''The recent setbacks have shown that recovery remains fragile and volatile until consumer confidence in air travel is restored,'' said analysts Pavathy Iyer and Meet Vora..
The outlook for the sector remains negative for eight Australian and New Zealand airports.
Domestic traffic is running at between 60 per cent and 70 per cent of pre-Covid levels but with borders remaining closed to all but some repatriation flights, international traffic was down by 98 per cent for the three months between July and September.
Coping with a tough stretch
More corporates are turning to the ''Stockdale Paradox'' to help find their way through the pandemic and Air New Zealand boss Greg Foran is the latest boss to invoke the coping strategy.
Writing in the NZ Air Line Pilots Association magazine, Foran says the airline has confronted the reality of what it and crew face together but not lost sight of optimism for the future.
James Stockdale was held prisoner in Vietnam for more than seven years. Photo / Getty
He says that mirrors the Stockdale Paradox named after James Stockdale a former US vice presidential candidate and Vietnam prisoner of war.
Tortured and given no reason to think he would make it out of the Hanoi Hilton alive, the naval officer embraced the harshness of the situation but balanced it with a healthy realism.
Anyone in airlines faces the same situation right now, while not physical torture, just anguish over when this pandemic will pass.
Stockdale was held for more than seven years, the 10 months Foran has been at the helm must have felt like a long corporate stretch too as he's had to shrink the airline.
Foran started work on February 3, the day the airline suspended flights to Shanghai.
He says he can see light at the end of the tunnel and while there's no sign of him ''going over the wall'' just yet, much of the airline's operational overhaul and his executive restructure is complete.
His hired industrial gun Joe McCollum is leaving the company next February.
Foran, 59, had a long and highly successful career in retail around the world and he has a passion for the sector which would be seen as a logical next step.
