While the optics of a flight diverting in order to pick up the CEO might not sound great on the surface, this seems to have been handled pretty well, by all accounts…
Continue reading: Air New Zealand Flight Diverts To Pick Up Stranded CEO
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CNN says that an ANZ flight from Auckland to Tokyo diverted to Port Moresby to pick up the PM:
Story:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/18/travel/christopher-luxon-air-new-zealand-plane-intl-hnk/index.html
Are we really expecting the CEP of an international airline to sit in economy ? Serving drinks was a nice enough touch
@ Abet -- If there are no open seats in business class then I absolutely think it's the right thing. At other airlines, I could see some passengers being informed that they need to be downgraded for "operational reasons," only for the seats to be given away to executives. That wouldn't be cool.
@ Andy -- That's definitely not accurate, as you can see from the flight tracking:
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/nz99
I'd never thought I'd decend to being a reply-guy but isn't it quite clear that the flight diverted to pick up the *Prime Minister* of the entire country. Like sure the CEO was in the delegation but for goodness sake the flight went to Brisbane because the most senior member of New Zealand's government was going on a state trip??
Yes, Lucky. The N.Z. Prime Minister did indeed manage to catch a scheduled Air Niugini (PX) flight from Port Moresby to Hong Kong, thanks to a helpful quick intervention from the P.N.G. Prime Minister, who even personally escorted the N.Z. Prime Minister to the door of the aircraft (it would have been a B767 operating the POM/HKG route). Presumably, the N.Z. party would have caught another flight from HK to Japan..Story and pics shown by local media.
To be fair 2 hours is barely a delay and most passengers would anticipate the possibility of a delay anyway - I say well done Air NZ team!
I love this. The CEO and Chairwoman taking this opportunity to serve drinks and interact with passengers and cabin crew is not just being a savvy leader, but using this situation to pick up different insights about the product and customers. I could actually see one US airline CEO doing something like this, but would never happen in Europe, Asia or the Middle East.
@Andy-- I never accept what I read or see on FOX or CNN as fact. Unfortunately the art of verifying facts has been lost over the years.
I apologize for getting a bit off topic here. Several years ago, during the Trump - Clinton election, I started fact checking both "news" outlets, and I found both included facts that supported their agenda while leaving out facts that did not (half truths) or stated incorrect information or opinion as factual.
If anyone has found a source of news that takes pride in being factual, balanced, and unbiased, please let me know.
If Carsten Spohr had confronted a similar situation (Germany's government aircraft are as unreliably as New Zealand's), he would have requisitioned a private jet for himself and his bodyguards -- or cleared the business class cabin for himself and his retinue.
If the delegation wanted to fly commercial, they would have booked Air New Zealand in the first place. While the CEO tired to make a good impression, it is not acceptable to inconvenience a full plane of passengers each with their own travel schedule for the convenience of “more important “ people.
Arriving at 6 pm allows you to be at the hotel by 8 pm and have dinner. Landing after 8 pm negates the option to relax in the evening before going to bed.
@Lucky -
This makes 2 Air New Zealand long-haul flights to divert on June 17th.
NZ29 IAH-AKL (operated by ex-CX 77W ZK-OKU) was well over the Pacific Ocean en-route to AKL when it diverted north to LAX around 2am:
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/ZKOKU/history/20240617/0305Z/KIAH/NZAA
For an airline as small as ANZ that’s pretty wild for 2 flights to divert. I’m curious why NZ29 diverted to LAX?
Not a fun day for ANZ dispatch or crew scheduling!
The RNZAF 757 is notoriously unreliable and needs to be replaced with an ACJ or BBJ as soon as possible. Or the government could buy a Global 7500/G700 and the hangers-on can fly commercial. Whatever works.
I totally agree, it would have been woefully bad PR to bump paying pax from biz so the CEO and Chairman could be accommodated. It sounds as though the situation was handled very well indeed, and with only minor inconvenience to all concerned.
@Don: Try watching and reading non-profit news organizations. I watch PBS and read Vox, The Intercept, ProPublica, Politico. I donate monthly and annually to three of them. Sometimes, I stumble on other fascinating articles on unknown news websites. After Oct. 7 war and Boeing fiasco, I rarely watch the main media news as the info is pathetically one sided. The middle east continues to fascinate and captivate me since I lived and worked in Kuwait three decades ago. While being there, I mingled with few Kuwaitis, who rarely came in contact with the public and expats, and others from four corners of the world. Such knowledge and experiences set me apart from others that enable me to dissect and recognize if the news is trust-worthy and valuable or prejudiced and junk.
@Don: Try watching and reading non-profit news organizations. I watch PBS and read The Intercept, ProPublica, Vox, and Politico. I donate monthly and annually to three of them. After Boeing fiasco and Oct. 7th Gaza war, I rarely watch or read the main stream news media because they are pathetically one sided. Take Forbes for example. Strike 1: Trump is the billionaire. We know he cooked the numbers. I cannot name any billionaire who filed for bankruptcy, let alone multiple times. Strike 2: Elizabeth Holmes is the youngest billionaire under age 30. We know where she is today. Strike 3: Kylie Jenner is the youngest self made billionaire. Well, it had to print a retraction article clarifying that she was not. The Mid-East continues to fascinate and captivate me since I lived and worked in Kuwait three decades ago. While being there, I mingled with the Kuwaitis, who rarely came in contact with the public and expats, and others from four corners of the world. The experiences enrich my knowledge of the region that set me apart from others. It enables me to dissect and recognize if the news is trustworthy and valuable or prejudiced and junk.
Air NZ should have provided the passengers with some sort of compensation or a boucher for a future flight based on the delay
I do have to wonder why they couldn't have just flown Qantas or Jetstar from Brisbane to Tokyo and save the entire inconvenience for everyone and having to explain themselves. The RNZAF plane could have also flown to Cairns and they could have taken the Virgin Australia 737 flight from Cairns to Tokyo if it would have been more convenient.
Seems abit odd that their solution was to create inconvenience for a nearly full flight, only to sit in economy anyway.
I'm calling this clickbait material even for mainstream media.
People are putting the CEO hat on for him when in reality he was part of the trade delegates, a hat he was actually wearing.
No Air New Zealand didn't divert to pickup the CEO, the flag carrier, which is also majority government owned, diverted to pick up government delegates, one of which happens to be the CEO and chairwoman.
But f*** all this. It's politics where everything is clickbait and facts are what you chose to believe not what really is.
Didn't you read.
The didn't want to fly commercial, that's why they ended up on the 757.
When your 51% shareholder wants something you'd better listen.
Now the issue of “more important “ (sic) people, unless you are 9 years old and brainwashed by equality and other woke stuff, you'd realize the world was and always is influenced by the “more important “(sic) people.
And perhaps the drinks were free, too!
And clearly it was not just the CEO, rather a trade delegation representing the entire country so hopefully the many Kiwi's on board appreciated the effort for their representation.
Good job Air New Zealand!
Leo saved 98 Kurd charter flight ... should be divided up between passengers on the plane at least .. In addition to whatever , event they missed .. funeral , graduation , train , date.....
Why not just take the regularly scheduled Qantas flight from BNE to NRT rather than needlessly diverting an entire Air NZ flight to BNE, making hundreds of passengers over two hours late, some of whom may have had missed connections in NRT?
A disgrace. Proving that airline executives think they are superior to their customers. Two hour twenty delay could have caused dramas for many.
Missed connections costing overnights. Some may have missed transport. Important meetings etc. Airline executives need to realise they aren't the business. The business is the Passengers and staff that deliver the product to the passengers. Management are the parasites that feed off the relationship. There must have been commercial flight options. Outrageous Corporate arrogance is my conclusion!