Air New Zealand starting to see a slight recovery in demand

Air New Zealand CEO, Rob Fyfe stated the carrier is starting to see a slight recovery in demand in increased forward bookings, but does not expect yields to improve until the end of 2010 at the earliest (Breaking Travel News/Reuters, 06-Oct-09). Mr Fyfe added Air New Zealand's balance sheet is strong at present and the carrier is currently looking for acquisition opportunities. The carrier has no plans to make further capacity cuts.

Air New Zealand: "I'm not strongly optimistic, in that we don't expect to see any improvement in yield until the end of 2010. We might see some gradual improvement in yields, but it will take a long time for the industry to reabsorb the parked capacity…Our focus is pretty much New Zealand…We don't see ourselves as necessarily having aspirations of being a big global player." Rob Fyfe, CEO. Breaking Travel News, 06-Oct-09.