Airlines put brakes on recruiting
A hiring freeze has been applied to some parts of Air NZ as the airline grapples with challenges emerging from the coronavirus crisis, a union says.
The airline has also postponed its 80th anniversary celebration, scheduled to be held in Auckland on March 5, because managers are too busy dealing with fallout from the virus, which the World Health Organisation says has killed nearly 3000 people and infected more than 80,000.
‘‘We regret to advise we have decided to postpone this event due to the current impact of the coronavirus on Air NZ,’’ board chairman Dame Therese Walsh said in an email to guests.
E tu¯ union’s aviation spokesman Savage said airlines were struggling with reduced passenger numbers and cargo loads.
Airlines, including Air NZ, were having to think about how they managed staff who worked on services affected by coronavirus. ‘‘Certainly there are parts of Air NZ where recruitment has been put on hold,’’ Savage said.
Airlines with New Zealand crew or ground crew had been redeploying staff to other areas of the business and encouraging staff to use up annual leave, he said. So far there had been no job losses, he said.
Air NZ has more than 12,500 staff worldwide. An airline spokeswoman said it had not implemented a hiring freeze but had asked crew for expressions of interest in taking leave without pay for a short period.
On Monday, ahead of reporting its interim financial results today, Air NZ warned its revenue outlook for the remainder of the 2020 financial year was expected to be adversely impacted as a result of softer demand for travel to and from Asian destinations as a result of coronavirus.
Qantas has said it will implement a hiring freeze as it looks to reduce capacity to Asia until at least the end of May.