Issue 318: Black Birds

Air NZ’s 787-9 arrives, A350 nears

As Winston Churchill said, never waste a crisis. When you have a crisis that is the opportunity to make changes that are probably very difficult to do in a status quo situation. The people within the organisation were up for change because they knew the organisation had to change, they knew that the airline had come within a whisker of going under. ” Ralph Norris is in a relaxed mood as he contemplates the transformation of Air New Zealand, happy to chat about the remaking of the airline he was one of the original driving forces behind, during the 13+ hour delivery flight of the most obvious symbol of that remarkable turnaround story – the airline’s first Boeing 787-9.

Clearly Norris and his management team, under chairman John Palmer, who was also on the delivery flight, certainly didn’t let the crisis at Air New Zealand go to ‘waste’. Under previous management, Air New Zealand had clearly bitten off more than it could chew with its 100 per cent acquisition of Ansett. When Ansett collapsed in September 2001, Air New Zealand too, was on the brink of financial disaster, and was only saved after the New Zealand government stepped in to recapitalise the airline (in the process becoming its majority shareholder).