Travellers happy national carrier saved

By NAOMI LARKIN

Travellers yesterday welcomed the Government's bailout of Air New Zealand, saying the country must retain its national carrier.

But airline counter staff the Herald spoke to remained pessimistic about the future and annoyed at the way they had been treated. None of the staff wanted to be named.

Staff at Auckland Airport's domestic terminal said information about the bailout had been posted on their noticeboard, but some had not bothered to read it.

"I have been through so much restructuring and reviewing here that I just accept it - either way," one man said.

"Some of us have been through this with Qantas already [Qantas New Zealand collapsed in April] and you just get cynical after a while," another man said.

One woman said that what mattered was the way the airline would be run, and it appeared from the lack of information given to staff that things would not change.

"You know as much as we know. Communication to staff has been zero," she said.

"What we would like is a little message from someone, somewhere to tell us to keep our chins up - to hang in there. But we have been singularly ignored."

Lawyer Rebecca Macky, who was flying to Wellington yesterday, said Air New Zealand was her preferred airline and she was happy with the Government's decision.

"I think we have to have a national airline and I don't think the Government had any choice but to bail us out."

Therese Rehburg said the country needed to have a national carrier but she did not want the Government managing it.

"They are not in the business of running business. They are politicians," she said.

"I'm glad we've still got and airline and I'm glad I own it."

New Plymouth deer farmer John Cusdin, who was flying Air New Zealand to Sydney, said the Government had to save the airline.

"I'm in the export business and we require a national carrier to meet our markets."

Campbell Brown, project development coordinator for Tourism Holdings, said the Government should have acted earlier.

"It's good that the Government did what it did but potentially it could have done something earlier if it hadn't mucked around so much with its decision making."

He believed most taxpayers would not object to the cost of the bailout because of the need to maintain a national carrier.

"People probably wouldn't mind because Air New Zealand is such an important asset for New Zealand, certainly in the tourism sector but also just as a general icon of New Zealand.

"We can't have Air New Zealand falling over and another airline coming in because we wouldn't be serviced nearly as well and the tourism market would go down the plughole."

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