Almost 300 Air NZ jet pilots made redundant

7th May 2020 By Staff Reporter | news@tourismticker.com | @tourismticker

Almost 300 Air New Zealand jet pilots have been made redundant with around 900 remaining at the carrier, says the New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association.

The remaining pilots would take a 30% pay cut for the next nine months but would continue flying the airline’s jet aircraft on the reduced domestic and international routes.

“We’d been in talks with Air New Zealand for a number of weeks to save as many pilots’ jobs as possible and ensure a fair process for getting other pilots back in the air once the recovery gets underway,” said NZALPA President Captain Andrew Ridling.

“Sadly, almost 300 of about 1200 of our Air New Zealand jet pilot members are being made redundant this week, some taking voluntary redundancy, or are accepting early retirement.”

Some pilots had decided to be furloughed, that is, go on leave without pay.

“The affected pilots, redundant and furloughed, will be the first to be called back in by the airline when aviation starts to recover,” said Ridling.

“There are challenges with so much uncertainty surrounding economic recovery, and the recovery of the aviation sector in particular.

“We successfully negotiated a furlough period which could be as long as 10 years, with the furloughed pilots still able to choose redundancy at any time in the first three years. In the meantime, these pilots are able to take employment elsewhere.”

Air New Zealand said last month that it would cut its staff of 12,500 by almost 30% or up to 3,500 jobs to cope with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.