Our Ansett planes are airworthy says Air NZ

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Air New Zealand says its Ansett planes are totally airworthy, despite a looming deadline that could leave more than just Ansett's Boeing 767 fleet on the tarmac.

The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (Casa) has not yet started physical inspections on the 10 Ansett 767s grounded last Thursday, just before the start of the busy Easter period.

Air NZ shares fell to new lows yesterday as the company copped market flak from the grounding. Its A shares, available only to New Zealand residents, closed 6 cents lower at 95c. Its B shares, open to allcomers, closed down 8c at $1.37.

And Casa still plans to notify Ansett on Friday that it has just 14 days to prove it can operate safely or lose its air operators certificate.

Despite Casa's concerns, Air New Zealand chairman Sir Selwyn Cushing told the Herald yesterday that Ansett's planes were "totally airworthy."

"Passenger safety is, and has always been, our number-one priority. But the regulator is the regulator, so we work happily with them trying to resolve the problem."

Casa said last week that the 767s were grounded because of a pattern of structural, management and personnel problems within the 65-year-old airline.

It could no longer accept Ansett's assurances that the safety of the 767s, which the airline had operated for 17 years, could be maintained.

Last Thursday, one plane was found to have flown with an incorrectly fitted emergency slide.

The finding followed missed inspections and mechanical failures.

"We clearly lost faith in Ansett's ability to make the improvements without the oversight from ourselves," said a Casa spokesman, Peter Gibson.

Casa staff would probably not begin inspecting the first of the 10 grounded planes until today.

Even if the 767s were cleared, Casa would still issue the 14-day "show-cause" notice on Friday, although if Ansett offered a package of reforms before then, the authority would study them.

Mr Gibson said the 767s were symptomatic of problems in Ansett that had been caused by a breakdown in its standards and workmanship, lack of quality management and proper organisational structure.

Air NZ told the New Zealand Stock Exchange yesterday that of nearly 40,000 passengers booked on Ansett on Easter Monday, more than 95 per cent travelled on Ansett or Air New Zealand aircraft. The rest were transferred to other airlines.