Air New Zealand takes back control in Australia

: Friday, 09 February 2007

AIR New Zealand Cargo will close its Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne sales offices and appoint sales representatives to service the market.

Perth and Adelaide will be managed from Melbourne.

Cairns, Coolangatta and Brisbane will be managed from Brisbane.

All cargo reservations will now be handled electronically by head office in Auckland.

The Sydney cargo sales office will stay open and Vicki Park will remain regional cargo manager Australia, along with current staff.

The move is similar to the strategy applied to the carrier’s passenger operation and makes maximum use of human resources and developing technology.

Murray Gregg, manager cargo sales for Air New Zealand confirmed the changes saying the carrier had decided to resume control of its sales and customer contact activity.

“This will allow our sales staff to be only focused on Air NZ, helping us deliver a better service to our customers,” said Gregg. “Our Sydney office remains as is as does Vicki Park’s roles as regional cargo manager, Australia. We will be appointing new sales managers in Melbourne and Brisbane. Customer service calls will be answered in our Auckland office, where we will have an “Aussie desk” manned to suit Australian business hours and staff who will quickly become familiar with our Australia customers and their requirements.”

Gregg said the airline had been considering the change for some time and that with a stable trans-Tasman schedule, plus the majority of its wide body space committed to allocations, now was the right time to change.
“The Auckland customer service centre will offer extended coverage for our customers and will be able to give immediate answers for any transhipment capacity requests for beyond Auckland carriage on the Air NZ network. We are still working though the transition process from our present gsa to Air NZ Cargo but expect the new arrangements will be in place by mid July/ late August.”