Air NZ weighing options to recoup fuel disruption costs but says fares won't go up

Air New Zealand is still dealing with the lingering impact of the fuel pipeline failure but is now looking at recouping costs and will push for an overhaul of infrastructure. CE Christopher Luxon said the airline's lawyers were looking at how insurance could cover losses from the two-week fuel shortage and whether there was any other action it could take. The company reiterated at its annual shareholders' meeting that the disruption caused by the rupture of Refining NZ's pipeline would not materially affect earnings in the current year. But speaking after the event Luxon said there had been a financial impact. "It's quite hard to run an airline with only 30% of the fuel so we've had a lot of focus on that in the last two weeks but from now with our commercial focus we'll start to look at what insurance options we have and any other remedies we may have as well." Luxon said passengers would not pay through fares for losses suffered by Air NZ, which has its hub at Auckland Airport where fresh supplies of jet fuel were completely cut for a week. While there had been good collaboration by all involved to minimise the impact of the crisis it was now time for a reassessment of infrastructure. His airline had highlighted the fuel system's vulnerability several times during the past 14 years. "I think it's a timely wake-up call for us to sit around the table and consider what the critical infrastructure New Zealand needs so this won't happen again. Irrespective of which government emerges that's going to be a focus area for them and we've obviously got a lot of energy around that subject."<br/>