Air New Zealand said on 11 Feb that it had cancelled 46 wide-body long-haul services ahead of a planned two-day strike by its unionised international cabin crew over stalled negotiations, which was reported by Reuters.
Air New Zealand is warning thousands of passengers to brace for disruption as the cancellations may affect up to 16,000 travellers and said that the domestic and regional network would operate as normal, with some cargo-only flights also scheduled.
The airline added that it has rescheduled flights and redeployed its fleet to protect most Tasman and Pacific services from cancellations.
Air New Zealand has cancelled 44 flights ahead of the strike and adjusted multiple schedules to manage crew availability. The airline confirmed that several long-haul services departing from Auckland will not operate as scheduled due to staffing constraints.
Flights on Thursday and Friday, mostly to North America and Asia, to be disrupted
RNZ reported that flight attendants working aboard the airline’s Boeing 777 and 787 long range aircraft will stop work on Thursday and Friday this week after failing to agree on terms over pay and conditions.
Air New Zealand chief customer and digital officer Jeremy O’Brien said, in the same RNZ report, that it had proactively contacted all customers affected by the flight cancellations and offered alternative flights across its airline as well as its partner airlines.
The “vast majority” had been offered travel dates within a few days either side of the strike. Flights that were most affected were heading to North America and Asia, he said.
O’Brien said he appreciated that not all offered flights would suit every customer and a full credit or refund was available for those in that situation. They could also claim “reasonable costs” involved with the disruption, like if accommodation was impacted by the changes.
O’Brien said disruptions to flights were “part and parcel” with what happen for airlines operating around the world. “This is no different than other disruptions that we manage on an ongoing basis. It’s just part of business as usual.
“The key thing for us is when we know that we’ve got a disruption to the schedule that we go out and offer as many alternatives and options as possible to the customers and in this case, the whole business is rallying around and been able to do that.”
Air New Zealand respected the flight attendants right to strike and it was reacting as a business – which meant focusing on what options were available to customers, he said.
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