Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran says more crew are showing symptoms of Covid-19 and he expects a number of cases in the airline.
Air New Zealand has stood down 15 aircrew members as close contacts of a positive Omicron case.
The national carrier is free to operate in the red setting and there are no regional borders in place as there were during the recent Delta outbreak.
In a statement, it said it has "significant precautions" in place for all customer-facing staff in the air and on the ground.
Foran told Morning Report some of the stood down crew are showing symptoms of the virus.
"This is what I think we're going to see, this will move quite quickly. We do anticipate that we'll be dealing with quite a few more cases."
He said the crew member that first tested positive for the virus is doing well.
"Our crew members are double vaccinated, many of them have now completed their booster shots, but this particular crew member is in good shape and good spirits, and this was picked up as part of the normal testing that we do in terms of all of our crew."
Foran said in future he is expecting large numbers of the airline's staff to be out sick with Covid-19 and is waiting to hear more from the government about how it will be handled.
"I think we're going to see quite a few Air New Zealanders unfortunately, despite all the procedures and protocols that we have in place, end up catching Omicron. We're going to need some help to deal with running the airline in terms of how critical workers are going to be handled in terms of standardised downtime, and testing etcetera.
"We're seeing that play out in many countries around the world, and it won't just be airlines, it'll be supermarkets and hospitals, other transport providers."
