Strike off — Air NZ, unions reach agreement

AUCKLAND: Air New Zealand announced late last night that three days of strike action planned for next week had been called off.

Three days of mediated negotiations concluded yesterday evening with the parties reaching an agreement the unions will now take to their members to vote on.

Air New Zealand chief ground operations officer Carrie Huri hanganui said the airline was focused on achieving a resolution on behalf of its customers.

‘‘We know how important it is to our customers to get where they need to be, particularly at this special time of the year and the negotiating teams have been working diligently to achieve this result.’’

The planned strikes had threatened to disrupt travel for 120,000 customers over the three busiest years of the year from December 21.

The period spans three of the busiest days in the airline annual calendar.

On December 21 alone, Air New Zealand has close to 42,000 customers booked to travel domestically on its A320 jets and international travellers faced possible flight cancellations.

The airline accused just under 1000 engineers of deliberately using Kiwi families’ much anticipated Christmas holidays as a bargaining chip.

The airline detailed the average income of maintenance engineers, logistics and other staff to strike — $115,000 — angering unions who accused it of taking an unnecessarily aggressive approach. — NZME