‘Red’ and ‘green’ bubble flights planned

Air New Zealand plans to classify flights as ‘‘red’’ or ‘‘green’’ to remove the risk of transit passengers infecting others with Covid-19 when a trans-Tasman bubble opens.

In an interview with Radio NZ on Thursday morning Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran said he expected a quarantine-free transTasman bubble to open in the first quarter of 2021, as indicated by the Government. That’s despite doubt being cast over the opening date, following a recent outbreak of Covid-19 in Sydney’s northern beaches.

The airline was ‘‘taking a stab’’ that the bubble would open in February but appreciated that date was likely to move depending on conditions at the time, he said.

He expected a New Zealand-Cook Islands bubble to also open in the first quarter as indicated by the Government.

The airline had been working with authorities, airports and border control to figure out logistics such as how to manage customers transiting through Australia from other countries, he said.

Customers who travelled between New Zealand and Australia or New Zealand and Rarotonga were generally going to be Covid-19 free, he said.

‘‘We call those green flights,’’ Foran said. ‘‘When we have flights where we have transit passengers then they’re going to be red flights.’’

It was also working through how those flights would be staffed and ensuring crew were comfortable with arrangements in place, he said.

‘‘In order to make this work well you need to create bubbles.’’

Foran said the airline had the information it needed from the Government in order to begin operating when a bubble opened.

He said the airline was planning for the bubble to open outside of school holidays, which meant the uptake of people wanting to travel would be less.

Nevertheless, it was still preparing to operate 80 to 90 per cent of pre-Covid-19 capacity to begin with, he said.

‘‘It varies depending on each particular route.’’

He said airline staff were looking forward to the bubbles opening.

Prior to the pandemic Air New Zealand’s Tasman and Pacific routes accounted for about a third of its $6 billion annual revenue, he said.

Last week the national carrier recalled 175 cabin crew who had been on Covid-related furlough, as it gears up for quarantine-free travel bubbles.

Foran also addressed questions relating to an exodus of staff in senior management since his arrival.

As part of cost-cutting measures Foran reduced the size of his executive team from nine to six.

Following that there were resignations of two more top executives with chief commercial and customer officer Cam Wallace leaving and later taking up a role as MediaWorks chief executive, and chief financial officer and former acting chief executive Jeff McDowall announcing he would leave in early 2021 after a planned capital raise had been completed.

Foran said when a new chief executive started at a company there was always some ‘‘churn’’ in its leadership team.

‘‘It could be that people had aspirations for the job that I got,’’ Foran said.

‘‘It could be that they may not agree with the strategy that we’re putting in place.’’

‘‘In order to make this work well you need to create bubbles.’’

Greg Foran Air NZ chief executive