NZ should open borders to Covid-free countries or risk aviation industry being left behind - expert

June 26, 2020

Irene King joined TVNZ1's Breakfast to discuss the industry's outlook amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

New Zealand should open up its borders to Covid-free countries or risk the aviation industry being left behind, an aviation expert says.

Yesterday, Qantas announced at least 6000 staff will lose their jobs and stand down half of its 30,000-strong workforce as it struggles to cope with the fallout of Covid-19.

It comes after Air New Zealand earlier announced it would make redundant thousands of its own staff.

Aviation commentator Irene King called the move “a tragic theatre that’s playing out right across the global aviation industry”.

Ms King, joining TVNZ’s Breakfast this morning, said Qantas “is only really at the beginning” of its redundancy process, adding that it will go “much deeper and unfortunately very prolonged”.

The global industry has so far lost around US$130 billion (NZ$202.4 billion) following the pandemic, roughly the size of the New Zealand economy in the late 1980s, she said. 

"We've lost all of that momentum for growth," she said. "We've lost thousands and thousands of employees and the worst part of it all, though, is that there are no signs ... of global aviation turning around. Domestically? Very different story."

Ms King added, however, that the domestic industry "will sustain a very slim-downed sector" which must be propped up by cheap airfares.

"You put some great airfares in the New Zealand market and people get excited and it generates interest in wanting to see New Zealand. It's all about that excitement now.

"It's about energy and excitement and once you start to get that, then you start to get self-belief that we're going to be OK." 

Ms King called for New Zealand to have a "tactical response" at the border by allowing people from Covid-free countries to enter the country, rather than adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.

"I think the thing that frustrates me the most at the moment is we have a one-size-fits-all response at the border," she said. "There are countries that are Covid-free, and we should be starting to open up, having a very different tactical response for those countries.

"That's where the rest of the world's tracking - we are not."

Ms King said while people are able to travel and fly "quite freely", New Zealand "has got this piece of water around us that is really almost capturing New Zealand into this little bubble".

"Unfortunately, the consequence of that is that aviation is going to be left behind in this part of the world."

She added that while New Zealand has closed its borders to avoid the possible resurgence of Covid-19 in the country, the problem "is faced by every country around the globe".

"There's a very tactical response to how you manage risk, and when you understand what the risk is - and I think we're getting a really good grip on what it is, is from certain countries, certain carriers - and so we can deal with that and that's being managed well.

"Unfortunately, we're managing the low risk, which is a high opportunity for the New Zealand economy. We're managing the lower risk from those low-risk countries in the same way, and what I'm suggesting is that we need to be very tactical in how we respond." 

Ms King believes it will take around two or three years for the aviation industry to recover. 

"Let's hope for our mental health - and the familial ties that have all been broken - that we can go back and we can really get out there and enjoy the rest of the world."

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