Coronavirus: 385 cabin crew jobs to go at Air NZ due to 'significant continual decline' in passenger numbers

Air NZ is planning to make 385 cabin crew jobs redundant due to low international passenger numbers and further reductions to its international network. An internal email sent to Air NZ crew Wednesday said over the past month there had been “significant continual decline” in the number of passengers booking international travel as other carriers resumed international services and charges for managed isolation and quarantine were introduced. The national carrier last week told crew it was de-scheduling a number of flights on its international wide body network, including reducing the number of Auckland-Los Angeles passenger flights from daily to three times a week, and stopping passenger services from San Francisco. “Unfortunately the reduced schedule means we have a reduction in the number of crew we need for our wide body fleet,” the email said. “We are now in a situation where we need to consider the size of our team in relation to both the immediate and medium to long term demand. “In the foreseeable future, we have around 385 more wide body cabin crew in the business than we have work for.” The network reduction was in place for six months but uncertainty was expected to continue for longer. Wednesday’s email said the business had asked staff to make “significant personal sacrifices” as part of the cost-cutting programme. “Sadly with the continually changing situation, these sacrifices are not going to be enough.”<br/>