Dammit I agree with David Seymour

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MikeB4

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#324097 26-Feb-2026 13:23

I believe that David Seymour has a good point regarding Air New Zealand's interim loss. The government should not own AirNZ. I have held the view my entire life that the government has no place owning commercial businesses. It is not a core function of government.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/360943727/air-new-zealand-posts-59-million-first-half-loss-flags-strategic-reset

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

freitasm

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#3465166 26-Feb-2026 13:27

If Air New Zealand provided a good service, without the exhorbitant prices they could have a chance.

As it is, with no food on flights, departures being late most of the times (in my experience and others in my circle) it's hard to justify the premium price.

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gzt

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#3465169 26-Feb-2026 13:33

MikeB4: The government should not own AirNZ. I have held the view my entire life that the government has no place owning commercial businesses.

The reason the govt continues to own it is the national strategic element. NZ does not want to be left without air services during regional or national emergency, or in the case other carriers hit severe economic situations and remove services to NZ.

Or far worse than any of the above - any situation where we might have to rely on Australia ; ).

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#3465174 26-Feb-2026 13:49

I'm in two minds about it. IIRC the main reason the government owns a decent chunk of Air NZ shares is because they had to do it to bail them out once before. The alternative to bailing them out would be to let them fail.

Should we let them fail? Again, not sure.

I do know that Christopher Luxon (despite campaigning on how, if elected, he would fly commercial) took about 5 minutes to decide that having his 757 break down was embarrassing enough to immediately go out looking for a new plane, and they recently announced a $700M deal for a pair of A321XLRs. Would the failure of New Zealand's flag carrier airline be more or less embarrassing than the 757s?

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MikeB4

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#3465184 26-Feb-2026 14:31

gzt:
MikeB4: The government should not own AirNZ. I have held the view my entire life that the government has no place owning commercial businesses.

The reason the govt continues to own it is the national strategic element. NZ does not want to be left without air services during regional or national emergency, or in the case other carriers hit severe economic situations and remove services to NZ.

Or far worse than any of the above - any situation where we might have to rely on Australia ; ).

Or would Aotearoa be better served if the domination and historical anti competative actions was no longer present. During emergencies Air NZ play minimal to no role.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

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#3465187 26-Feb-2026 14:41

For emergencies the government has the Air Force. If that doesn't work they need to fix it, not prop up a failing commercial enterprise. What is the military there for, if not to step in during emergencies? Air New Zealand has consistently put corporate greed so far ahead of any sense of community responsibility that they don't deserve their name.

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ezbee

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#3465203 26-Feb-2026 15:28

In Covid when we needed to support international links to keep exports going.
At least money to Air New Zealand circulated money back into the economy.

Norfolk Island an Australian territory kinda got dropped and forgotten.
Had to get emergency air charters from NZ.
As we sleepwalk into the minefield of companies sending an LNG tanker so far from major markets, and quick turn profits.

Problem is like Australian Banks, Australian and Asian Airlines probably see New Zealand as a Cash Cow.
Sure local private efforts running on a shoestring might pop up, but these larger airlines may crush them at will.

Then there is the issue that when ever the Government, any Government has sold assets,
it gets a truly awful price for them.
When you know the other party is desperate to sell, has to sell, are you offering top dollar?
Great opportunity for shorting?

We might get offers like, you pay us to take it off your hands, you pay for the redundancies.

Then you also have the bigger problem of where our future Prime Ministers come from. :-)

Its dammed if you do dammed if you don't.

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gzt

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#3465269 26-Feb-2026 20:06

MikeB4: Or would Aotearoa be better served if the domination and historical anti competative actions was no longer present.

Imo if it goes to market it is likely to end up with an Australian majority owner sooner or later. The things you object to above are exactly what our Australian controlled banking sector is known for:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/512281/banking-sector-lacks-competition-commerce-commission-draft-report

Technofreak

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#3466105 2-Mar-2026 22:16

I'm sorry David Seymour is being a goose on this issue.

Coming out and saying that the government should sell its Air New Zealand shares just because Air New Zealand made a loss is stupid. This is not the time to sell shares, unless of course the company in question is a basket case, which Air New Zealand isn't. The time to sell is when the company recovers.

I'm not arguing that the government should or shouldn't own these shares, there's very good arguments for both owning and not owning.

Also the taxpayer isn't paying twice. Since the bail out after September 11 and the Ansett debacle (which incidentally was triggered by Australian interests) the government has done quite nicely from its investment in Air New Zealand.

People love to bag companies like Air New Zealand without understanding the issues these companies face from time to time. I think that in the current circumstances Air New Zealand is doing an OK job.

Can they improve, sure they can.

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Technofreak

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#3466108 2-Mar-2026 22:31

freitasm:

If Air New Zealand provided a good service, without the exhorbitant prices they could have a chance.

As it is, with no food on flights, departures being late most of the times (in my experience and others in my circle) it's hard to justify the premium price.

I presume you are talking about domestic flights WRT food. I can't remember the last time there was ever food on a domestic flight.

Air New Zealand domestic fleet has been disproportionately affected with the A320/321 NEO engine problems plus there have been a higher than usual number of weather disruptions this summer. Unfortunately as a result on time performance takes a hit.

Whether they are charging a premium price is probably personal perception. Most of the seat pricing is basically set around supply and demand.

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