Air NZ pilots face demotion, pay cut
 

Air NZ pilots face demotion, pay cut

TONY WALL - Sunday Star Times | Sunday, 18 January 2009

MORE THAN 30 senior Air New Zealand pilots flying the airline's largest jets face demotion to smaller aircraft and reduced pay as the company looks for ways to avoid large-scale redundancies in the difficult economic climate.

The Sunday Star-Times understands 32 pilots currently flying 747s, 777s and 767s on long-haul routes will be "down-trained", meaning they will fly smaller aircraft on domestic routes and have their pay and rank lowered. The airline has about 850 jet pilots, of which about half fly long-haul routes.
Air New Zealand is also offering pilots alternative roles within the company, leave without pay, flexible flying arrangements and enhanced retirement packages. According to a government career advice website, pilots who fly internationally earn up to $250,000.
Company spokeswoman Tracey Palmer said the initiatives were because of an 8% reduction in long-haul capacity as a result of the world economic downturn. Among the long-haul services Air New Zealand cut last year were flights to Japan and Hong Kong from New Zealand.
She said the airline had also made long-haul cabin crew redundant, offered reduced hours to corporate staff, not replaced non-safety sensitive roles and frozen executive pay.
"We have not made any pilots redundant and remain committed to maintaining a workforce of highly skilled and trained professionals to ensure the airline is quickly able to adapt to changing market conditions," she said.
Tim Robinson, head of the Air New Zealand pilots' council, said the union supported the company's initiatives. Although down-training was disappointing for pilots, it was preferable to being made redundant.
Robinson said the airline had also made inquiries about jobs with other airlines on behalf of pilots, although those opportunities were drying up.
Rick Mirkin, executive director of the Airline Pilots Association, said as far as he was aware, the other airlines that had pilots based here, Pacific Blue and Jet Connect, had not made cutbacks, although they flew mainly domestic and regional routes.

Air NZ pilots face demotion, pay cut - Sunday Star-Times - National News

The media hyping it up once again.
Retrenching those 747 pilots who did not take up the leave without pay offer.
Not sure 'down training' is the right phrase, more like getting current training again on something they flew previously before they were on the 747.
Correct me if I am wrong, but the reduced pay is probably only the sector or per diems pay, I bet their basic pay is unchanged.
And as for the $250,000 quote, thats a Capt on the 747 after 10yrs service in that role.

Hey if they don't like it they could always leave and join......








Ansett! :eek:


OK, OK - settle; just having a bit of fun. ;)

Absolutely!

They could sell some of the Ansett spares taken from Australia, to fund the downturn.

There we go, back to the moaning about ansett. What ever happened, it was a business that was not longer profitable and it fell over. It happens to many business, people move on and get over it.

CTOT,

If that makes you feel better, sure, it was that simple.

The reality is different and probably too complex for you to grasp.

Most of those companies looking at redundancies won't have to worry as most pilots will just leave for better managed companies that can survive in good and bad times.

AnQrKa,

You are right the demise of Ansett was a very complex drama with a number of actors - Australian Government, BIL, Murdoch, Qantas, Ansett themselves as well as Air New Zealand. However this thread is about the latter and the company is quite different to the Toomey (and those who came before) days.

Back on topic though, will downgrades on the fleet mean only a change in allowances etc? Surely base pay would take a cut too.

Indeed.

I think redundancy would actually be the easy option for Fyfe. The fact they are taking the option that keeps guys in work shows that Fyfe is willing to make management do some work for once, and work hard to keep the show in the black.

He got plaudits for the way he handled the A320 crash, perhaps you could argue he's due a few more?

I wont deny, it cant be easy to accept if you're the one being downtrained however. Atleast they have a seat.

I don't know for sure, but I doubt the basic pay can be altered under the union contract.

They still think this might possibly be a quick recession..so they need to hang on to everyone, just in case!

I dont know either, but if the company cant pay you the (lesser) salary scale for the type you downtrained to then whats the point? 747 pilots being paid 747 money to fly 767s or A320s? Cant see the company doing that.

Lots of retraining/sim time and musical seats to save a few allowances? Allowances arent type specific anyway are they? I would have thought they are trip or duty specific, regardless of the type that flew it.

They are saving on the running costs of the plane is the major objective, and salaries on those pilots that leave without pay too! Air NZ would have to abide by the union contracts. Don't forget that those pilots that take leave without pay still keep their seniority while gone!! At least one has requested 3yrs off.
If an Air NZ main pilot would post it would clear the matter up.

Different types do different length of sectors don't they, you do a 10-12hr flight, no official 'break' then overnight pay etc with just about every 747 flight on long haul, compare that to the allowances in your pay chq to doing the 767-A320-737, I would expect a difference?

As for the money Air NZ spends, you would be very surprised how many Australians are doing a commute (free) across the Tasman so as to work from Auckland (I'm talking about across the board, not just pilots)

I think you'll find downtraining is in fact a demotion to a smaller aircraft type, and a reduction in pay commensurate with that ie the most junior 747 Captains get offered their choice of fleet and take eg a 777 command. That means the 777 fleet may be overcrewed so the most junior 777 Captain moves back to whatever he chooses, be it 767, A320 or whatever. This is allowed for in the contract (haven't got mine in front of me but I'm pretty sure that's the case...someone can (will) correct me if I'm wrong. The company need to provide 3 months notice, or pay the old (higher rate) for 3 months.
There are options that prevent this like LWOP, early retirement etc. Trouble is the "old guys" are reluctant to retire at the moment as their super fund has done so poorly in the last year because of the financial crisis.
A compulsory retirement at 65 might solve the problem, but that's against human rights legislation.
As for the Ansett thing...build a bridge guys. It's not the current management or pilot's fault.

ahh, ok, well I stand corrected...partially, lol

Typical bloody kiwis, short arms and deep pockets :D

If Air Koru was such a poorly run company, why did Keating / Brereton prevent them from starting up in Oz under their own right? What were they afraid of?
The answer of course is that they would have rolled, bowled and iceholed any of the encumbent airlines in the West Island.

Air Koru on the other hand didn't need or get such protectionism when Ansett wanted to start in NZ:hmm:

That would be the Air Koru that had to be bailed out by the NZ government. Yes your right they don't need much help at all.

After the Ansett debacle mind you. Air Koru have come a long way since then. There is no doubt that they are dong pretty well under some pretty good leadership. New Zealand Government owns most of Air NZ as a result, so it's not like it was money for jam or anything.

As for the pilot demotions, I doubt it will go all that far down. Mt Cook, Air NSN and Eagle are all separate companies. I don't think you'll see it going much further than the 767 or maybe the A320.