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Air New Zealand is initiating contingency planning to minimise disruption to passengers booked to fly on its international and national jet airline services during a planned strike by members of the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) from 4.00am Friday, 19 July, to 4.00am on Sunday, 21 July.
Today, Air New Zealand advised ALPA representatives that its development plan for the next year envisages an increase in the amount of flying available to ALPA members employed by the Air New Zealand international and national airlines, and did not involve an expansion of the jet fleet operated by the subsidiary company Freedom Air.
In an effort to reassure ALPA pilots, Air New Zealand tabled a new proposal to assist in facilitating their transfer to employment at Freedom Air, in the event the company changed its current plans and expanded Freedom Air operations and created a surplus of pilots in the Air New Zealand international and national airline operations.
Despite Air New Zealand's assurances regarding its development plan for the next year and its new proposal to facilitate transfers between Air New Zealand airlines and Freedom Air in the event of a change of plan, ALPA declined to withdraw its notice of strike action and return to the bargaining table.
The company will continue to explore all means of averting the planned ALPA pilots' strike, and, if that is not possible, to minimise its impact on air travel over a weekend when New Zealand is in the final phases of a general election campaign and a major international rugby test between the All Blacks and the Springboks is scheduled in Wellington.
Air New Zealand subsidiary companies - Freedom Air, Mount Cook, Air Nelson, and Eagle Air - are not affected by the ALPA strike notice, and Air New Zealand itself employs a significant number of pilots on individual contacts or on a separate collective employment contract via the Federation of Airline Pilots of New Zealand who will be available for flight duty during the period of the ALPA strike.
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