Lawyer exploring options after travel ban upheld
A Nelson lawyer says she is exploring her legal options following a judgment upholding a travel ban imposed by Air New Zealand.
Anjela Sharma was banned from flying on the national carrier for a year following a dispute over entry to the Koru Lounge at Nelson Airport in 2018.
Three weeks after receiving the ban in July 2019, Sharma filed a proceeding against Air NZ over the ban, as well as a mandatory interim injunction to have it immediately removed.
In the High Court at Auckland on Monday, Justice Paul Davison dismissed the application, and also declined an application to move the proceeding to the High Court at Nelson.
Asked by The Nelson Mail about her reaction to the decision, Sharma said she did not want to comment at this stage, other than to say she was assessing her options with her legal advisers.
In her statement to the court, Sharma said she had been a regular flyer with Air NZ since 1980, and had been a member of the Koru Club for several years.
She said she was dependent on the airline’s service for work-related travel, as well as for maintaining contact with family. The dispute occurred on December 1, 2018, when Sharma and her family were about to fly out to India via Auckland. Sharma said that on her understanding, their business class tickets entitled the family to use the Koru Club Lounge at Nelson Airport.
She said they had been permitted to enter the lounge during a two-hour wait until their departure. After an inquiry from a second staff member, she had shown staff her family’s business class travel documentation for Singapore Airlines, and it was accepted that the family could remain there while waiting for their flight.
However, two of the staff members had claimed that Sharma and members of her family had acted in a loud, disruptive and intimidating manner in their dealings with the Koru Lounge hostess.
While the family were in India, Sharma received a warning letter from Air NZ on December 21 regarding their behaviour at the Koru Lounge.
In March 2019, Sharma sent an email to former Air NZ chief executive Christopher Luxon disputing there was any justification for the warning letter.
Sharma continued to send communications, and also tried to check in for a flight, and accused a Nelson Koru Lounge staff member of lying and being ‘‘on a venomous mission’’ against her, the court decision stated.
An email was sent to Sharma on behalf of Luxon, saying that her correspondence had been ‘‘distasteful and insulting’’ – leading to the 12-month ban.