The future of travel still up in air
Mike Harvey is one of the few New Zealanders to have visited both Tokyo and the Hollywood Sign in the last 12 months – but the pilot is one of the lucky ones in his industry.
The Taranaki man is working as regularly as he did before the pandemic struck, except he is now operating planes full of freight – not passengers.
‘‘I’m lucky to still be flying,’’ Harvey said. ‘‘There’s a massive percentage of pilots who are unemployed.’’
Nationally the aviation industry has been crippled since the borders closed – Air NZ alone made nearly 1000 cabin crew redundant – and it has brought an end to international tourism, plus everything involved with it.
Harvey is grateful he still has a job after 25 years working for the airline.
But it’s changed – he spends his days in other countries stuck in hotel rooms and has had more
Covid-19 tests that he can count.
The pilot remembers when it all changed last year.
‘‘I saw London and that slowing down, America slowing down,’’ Harvey said. ‘‘Then it just stopped.’’
Now, he and Hayden Lowe, who flew planes for Rotoruabased tourism company Volcanic Air, are focusing on their Flight Tech – Pilot Training in New Plymouth.
It’s been nothing but successful, Lowe said, and the pair are loving training up budding pilots.
Lowe watched his tourism work slow down this time last year and quickly realised his future was questionable.
‘‘I thought this whole industry is shot.’’
When his flying didn’t look like it was starting back up, Lowe considered another career choice, before Harvey gave him a call. ‘‘I’m glad we’re here.’’ Now, Lowe doesn’t see himself getting back into the travel industry anytime soon.
That’s a little different to Qantas flight attendant Shayana Ruakere, who also recently
started her own business.
The 28-year-old is looking forward to getting back in the skies, despite her love for her business Shay Illustrate, which has customers around the world.
‘‘I’d be straight back on a plane – it’s in your blood,’’ the Taranaki woman said. ‘‘It’s been something I’ve been good at for a long time.’’
This week marked a year since Ruakere’s last flight from Bangkok.
‘‘It’s still really tender,’’ the mother of two said. ‘‘I haven’t stepped on a plane since.’’
She started to notice a change in the middle of February last year, when a flight that usually had 500 people changed to 14 overnight.
When they landed in Singapore she saw jets lined up, and the airport – which is one of the busiest – was empty.
‘‘We were in disbelief, we thought we’ll be alright.’’
Then, she unknowingly got on her last flight.
‘‘We were told we had to go home because New Zealand was going into lockdown,’’ Ruakere said. ‘‘I was scared.’’
She said Qantas kept her in the loop in the months that followed and in September it offered crews to either take redundancy or wait it out – she chose to wait it out.
‘‘I didn’t think it would come to a standstill. It’s a crazy time.’’
Taranaki Chamber of Commerce chief executive Arun Chaudhari said the travel industry had been the worst off across Taranaki businesses.
‘‘Quite a few have had to lay off staff, a large number of staff,’’ Chaudhari said. ‘‘They’ve been the hardest hit.’’
House of Travel New Plymouth, was one of those. The standstill of international travel saw Tracey Edgecombe’s business revenue drop 90 per cent.
Edgecombe also went from 10 to four staff. ‘‘There’s been horrible days,’’ she said. ‘‘It’s been awful to be honest.’’
Edgecombe said domestic travel used to make up about 10 per cent of their work, ‘‘now it’s the only part of our business’’.
She said now anyone who walks through the door helps it stay open, and she’s ‘‘thankful’’ for that.
‘‘It’s been a hard flog,’’ she said. ‘‘But it’s made the four of us stronger.’’