AIR New Zealand aims to cut up to 385 more cabin crew jobs due to the lack of long-haul international flying, which would take its COVID-19 related job losses to around 37 percent of its workforce.

In response to the decline in passenger demand on our North American routes, the company has reduced their Los Angeles passenger flights from daily to three return passenger flights per week, and converted all of our San Francisco flights to cargo-only services, says Air New Zealand’s Chief Operating Officer Carrie Hurihanganui. ‘’We will continue to operate eight cargo-only flights on our Auckland-Los Angeles route,” Hurihanganui adds.

The company recognized that a reduced schedule will require a smaller number of cabin crew going forward and that they are working through what this means for the team. ‘’Any decision we make will be made in consultation with our people and the unions, with redundancies as the last resort,’’ Hurihanganui adds.  

‘’We appreciate that our cabin crew have already made significant sacrifices throughout COVID-19, but sadly our international schedule remains largely limited by border restrictions and unfortunately, there is not enough flying to provide sustainable rosters for the number of crew we have,’’ she added.