16 Sep 2020

Air New Zealand to cut around 385 more cabin crew

2:43 pm on 16 September 2020

Air New Zealand is cutting around 385 more cabin crew due to reduced demand on its North American routes.

An Air New Zealand aircraft parked at Auckland airport.

Photo: 123RF

Its chief operation officer Carrie Hurihanganui said the company reduced its Los Angeles flights from daily to three return flights per week.

"We appreciate that our cabin crew have already made significant sacrifices throughout Covid-19, but sadly our international schedule remains largely limited by border restrictions and unfortunately there is not enough flying to provide sustainable rosters for the number of crew we have," she said in a statement.

All San Francisco flights have also been converted to cargo only services.

The 385 staff will be made redundant by December.

But the E tū union is questioning why the company continues to outsource work to a cabin crew hire company in Shanghai.

E tū head of aviation, Savage, said in a statement that while crew can see the damage Covid-19 has done to the aviation sector, there is no operational reason for Air New Zealand to retain a crew base in Shanghai.

"The Shanghai base has always been about paying crew less and devaluing the role of cabin crew. Outsourcing is a barrier to raising standards in aviation and it needs to end," he said.

He said when the work returns it needs to come back to Auckland.

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