Bruce Cotterill: advisor to business leaders on Air New Zealand staff threatening strike action

Up to 15,000 passengers could be disrupted if Air New Zealand cabin crew go ahead with strike action next month.

The airline's largely unionised crew plan to strike on December 8th demanding greater salaries and allowances.

The flagship carrier's assessing the potential effect on operations.

Expert and advisor to business leaders, Bruce Cotterill, says people have high expectations when it comes to Air New Zealand and CEO Nikhil Ravishankar's response has left some disappointed.

"You do expect a level of performance and that level of performance isn't there at the moment. So it's frustrating - it's frustrating for travellers, I'm sure it's frustrating for Air New Zealand as well."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now Air New Zealand a the problems get worse. They're
under pressure now to save Christmas for thousands of travelers
because the cabin crew union has told the airline its
workers are going to go on strike on December. The
eighth Air New Zealand is saying if the strike does
go ahead, it could unpack fifteen thousand travelers over the weekend.
The airline also faced criticism from two prominent business commentator

(00:20):
Sam Stubbs in one newspaper and Bruce Cottrell in another
newspaper for a sliding performance in the price of flying
and Bruce Cottrell is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Now, Hi, Bruce, good aheader.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
What about that strike? Did you think Jesus can't get
any worse?

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Well, it could always get worse, I suppose. But it's
just about setting our expectations, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah? Well yeah, but setting our is the expectation, not
set by the price though, Bruce, And the price is
so high exactly.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Well, And that's what I tried to say in the
column here, that this is it's not a cheap service,
is it. It's and you expect performance when you're paying
a thousand bucks to fly return to Wellington? Yeah, and
you do expect to live performance and that level of
performance isn't there at the moment. So it's frustrating. It's
frustrating for travelers. I'm sure it's frustrating for Air New
Zealand as well.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
I wonder, I mean, what set you off, what got
you to finally write this column. Was the new CEO
basically saying everything was fine at the airline. I just
wanted because I'd also picked that up. And I just
wonder if they do not realize how how opinion is
turning against them, what do you think?

Speaker 2 (01:23):
I think? I think a couple of things. One was
one was that comment, and you're quite right when he
said that the airline was in fantastic shape when he
was on with Mike one morning. The other comment that
really grated me was after arriving in Wellington an hour
and twenty five minutes late and missing a meeting, for
the pilot to come on the speaker and apologize for

(01:46):
being quote a bit late. You know, I just and
that's that's what I mean about expectations. If the if
the team are in New Zealand are lowering their expectations
and an hour and twenty five is just a bit late,
then those expectations will never recover. And you know yourself, right,
if you don't aspire to be better, you'll never be better.
And that's and we just need we just need a

(02:08):
bit of amph as a country at the moment. It's
not just in New Zealand. I think the whole country
needs it.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
Yeah, and I think you're right. Do you think that
we're just kind of becoming a bit mediocre in our brains?

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, I don't know if we're becoming mediocre, but I
do think if you know we're sitting around but still
blaming COVID, then there's something wrong with us. You know,
we are a country that have become what we what
we are, or what we at least were until recently,
by boxing above our weight. And I think we're starting
to see a lot of evidence of not wanting to

(02:42):
do that anymore for whatever reason. And you know, I
put off writing that column for two years because I
don't want to knock in New Zealand, but gee, it's
getting hard to remain silent. And the feedback that we've
had over the weekend as a result of the column
would indicate that I'm not the only one that's feeling
like that.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
You're not You're not the only one at all. And and
I'm going to talk about this later on actually, because
I think you're onto something there. How long before you
start flying Jetstar.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Well, as I say in the column, I don't want
to be that guy. I want I want Air New
Zealand to be outrageously successful. And I don't want to
be the person that takes the cheaper option or flies
with flies with the enemy. I'd rather do everything I
can to support New Zealand or end z inc or
whatever you want to call it. But we do have

(03:27):
to lift our sites. We have to lift our own
expectations of ourselves and of the businesses that are there
to service. Otherwise we will We'll end up going to
do something else.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
And Air New Zealand is losing the loyal customers. So
what is your one tip to Air New Zealand if
you could give them one.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
If I could get them give them one tip, I
would say, recover the aspiration to be the best airline
in the world and give you people at the front
line who are interacting with your customers, the permission to
solve the customers problem.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Yeah, Bruce, thank you very much. It's so good to
talk to. You appreciate it. Bruce Cottural professional director, business
leader and advisor, and of course our Herald columnist, which
is where he wrote it in the Herald. You know,
honestly that column got I got. I got sent that
column randomly by one of my friends, and then I
had to talk to the boss over the weekend, who
just brought it up. He's like, oh, did you see
what Bruce said. Everybody's talking about the column. If you

(04:20):
haven't read the column, go and read the column. We're
going to talk about it because I have I have
more disounder, but I don't have time right now. I'm
going to talk about it with you later on.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
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