Air NZ posts $382m profit, suffers dip on last year

Air New Zealand has recorded its second strongest financial results in history, posting a new profit after tax of NZ$382 million (AU$351 million).

The results are a 17.5 per cent dip on last year’s results, which remain the best in the airline’s history and saw them snag NZ$463 million (AU$426 million).

And the results are good news for Air NZ employees who don’t have other incentive programs as part of their employment agreement – the Board has decided a Company Performance Bonus of up to $1700 will be paid to around 8500 staffers.

CEO Christopher Luxon said 2017 has been a top year for the airline, despite facing some serious competition worldwide.

“This year Air New Zealand faced an unprecedented increase in the level of competition from some of the world’s largest airlines and effectively rose to the challenge,” he said.

“The impressive way our team responded to the new competition while at the same time achieving commercial, customer and cultural excellence, helped to deliver our second highest profit ever.”

The airline’s loyalty program, Airpoints, was also up 16 per cent on subscriptions, now boasting more than 2.5 million members. Aussie members made up the bulk of offshore markets, growing more than 17 per cent in the past year.

And 2018 looks to be another great year for Air NZ, with its domestic network expected to increase, as the carrier banks on the growth of inbound tourism as well as strong domestic tourism.

Internationally, the airline’s strategy to enter key markets continue, with Air NZ focusing on the Japanese market, adding Haneda to its portfolio.

It’s also upping services during peak season across routes in the Pacific Islands, and North and South America.

It follows a successful year on all fronts from Air NZ, including being rated best corporate reputation domestically and across the ditch in Australia.

Speaking exclusively to Travel Weekly earlier this year, Luxon said the reason the carrier is killing it is because they’ve “done things very differently from other airlines”.

“We compete with the big, state-funded Chinese carriers, we compete with Qantas Group that’s four times bigger than Air New Zealand, we compete with American carriers coming in, Middle Eastern carriers coming in.

“So we don’t make excuses – we want to compete in the marketplace and we’ve got awesome people and great innovation that’s enabled us to do incredibly well.

Air NZ also continued its winning streak on the safety video front, releasing this fantastical clip just last month. It joins the hilarious Dave the Goose ambassador that’s been winning over a few new neighbours with his cracking Aussie humour.

Lead image source: Simon Watts/Getty Images AsiaPac

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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