There is a lot of talk about Ansett being a high cost airline, which is why it went under. I would hardly call Air NZ lean and mean.
Pacific Wave Idea = $150,000,000 wasted
SAP computer system = $55,000,000 wasted
The difference between the two:
Ansett lost business to Virgin, Impulse and Qantas. With any normal airline the margins are thin, and with a penniless owner, the writing was on the wall.
Air NZ had little domestic competiton, so it had the margins.
The thing Air NZ people have to do, is accept that their airline management had a major part in the Ansett tragedy.