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Speaker 1: Twas fun. What's down? What were the major cause and

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Speaker 1: how will it affect the economy? The big business questions

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Speaker 1: on the Business Hour with Hither Duplessy Element and Mass

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Speaker 1: for Insurance Investments and Julie Safer You're in good hands,

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Speaker 1: News Talks Envy.

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Speaker 2: Evening coming up with the next hour. We've had met

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Speaker 2: a Google Microsoft all report in the last day, so

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Speaker 2: Sam Dickie's going to talk us through that after half

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Speaker 2: past Fonterra Sale going to chat to Jamie McKay about that,

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Speaker 2: and then we'll head off to the UK at seven

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Speaker 2: past six. Now, we had the global Microsoft outage this morning,

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Speaker 2: disrupting websites around the world, and one of the companies

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Speaker 2: that was affected was of course in New Zealand. Some

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Speaker 2: flights were delayed as a result, and we have Nicol

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Speaker 2: Ravashanka in New Zealand's new chief executive and studio with

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Speaker 2: us right now. Hey, Nicole, Hither are you well? Thanks

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Speaker 2: if you managed to sort out this morning's disruption.

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Speaker 3: We have The teams have done an incredible job dealing

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Speaker 3: with what's been a sort of global outage. Yeah, has

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Speaker 3: impacted a lot of big organizations around.

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Speaker 2: Was everything running to time now? Buy and large.

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Speaker 3: Everything's running today right.

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Speaker 2: By eighty Zealand standards.

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Speaker 3: We are. We're very proud of the fact that, you know, well,

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Speaker 3: I'm very proud of the fact that everyone who works

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Speaker 3: at the airline takes punctuality very seriously.

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Speaker 2: I'm so sorry, Like, what a way to start this street.

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Speaker 2: You're just straight in there with a low blow. I'm sorry.

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Speaker 2: Prepare yourself. You're going to get along necessarily in the

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Speaker 2: next five minutes from there above. So what did the

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Speaker 2: guys have to do? They just have to do the

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Speaker 2: manual boarding, did they Yep.

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Speaker 3: We call it BCP or Business Continuity Plans, and so

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Speaker 3: they kick into action a bunch of people across the airline,

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Speaker 3: so teams all around the airline actually have to have

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Speaker 3: to go into plan B mode. Yeah, and it's a

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Speaker 3: well rehearsed sort of thing that we do. Operations center,

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Speaker 3: airport staff are pilots and cabin crew of course, the

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Speaker 3: digital teams. Yeah, and what they're pulled off today is

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Speaker 3: absolutely incredible.

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Speaker 2: Hey, do you know what the other day, I was

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Speaker 2: jumping on a flight and you know, like I got

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Speaker 2: into the habit of showing them because you're bored with

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Speaker 2: it as you get onto and you walk across the

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Speaker 2: air badge and then you get on the plane and

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Speaker 2: then you show them the ticket again. And they were like,

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Speaker 2: we don't do that anymore. Is that a thing?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we've stopped doing that, So.

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Speaker 2: I don't have to show them that I'm sitting in

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Speaker 2: one sea. I can just knock over to one sea.

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Speaker 3: No, we trust that you know you're on the right.

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Speaker 2: Thank god, Nichol, Is this a you thing?

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Speaker 3: It was a greg thing actually, but God for that.

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Speaker 2: It was ridiculous like that. We were just like like

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Speaker 2: double handling, won't we.

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Speaker 3: Well, every second counts and you know, one of the

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Speaker 3: big aspirations we have is to be in the top five,

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Speaker 3: if not the top three airlines around the world as

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Speaker 3: far as safe on time performance is concerned.

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Speaker 2: Well, good luck with that now. Thank you, Thanks, You're welcome.

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Speaker 2: Thanks cheering you on as a customer. Talk to me

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Speaker 2: about this regional subsidy? Are you really wanting regional subsidy

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Speaker 2: from the government.

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Speaker 3: Look, I'm nine days in the job and if there's

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Speaker 3: anything that's clear in my mind is the fact that

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Speaker 3: in New Zealand is incredibly critical for New Zealand's success

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Speaker 3: and that it's a complex business, right, but at the

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Speaker 3: core of it, our purpose for being is to connect

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Speaker 3: New Zealanders to each other in New Zealand to the world.

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Speaker 3: And that's more important here than anywhere else in the

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Speaker 3: world because so much of our GDP relies on aviation,

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Speaker 3: be it within the country or connecting New Zealand to

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Speaker 3: regions around the world. So all of those things are

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Speaker 3: extremely important and that's what I'm sort of focused on doing.

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Speaker 2: Yep. So they've shut you down already though, haven't they.

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Speaker 2: I mean, Nichola Willis to shut you down. David Siemill

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Speaker 2: shut you down, Chris Luxon shut you down. So what

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Speaker 2: do you do now?

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Speaker 3: Well, you know, I think there is so much alignment

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Speaker 3: in what we're all trying to achieve, and quite genuinely,

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Speaker 3: what we all want is to see New Zealand that's

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Speaker 3: thriving economy that continues to grow, where we can create

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Speaker 3: connections and trade and uh with with within the country

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Speaker 3: and across the world. And just yesterday I was at

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Speaker 3: the Tourism Industry Association event, right and there's a group

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Speaker 3: of people who are you know, representing teams. It's Team

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Speaker 3: New Zealand and it's best frankly, and one of the

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Speaker 3: things that we're all trying to do government tourism operators

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Speaker 3: us as Air New Zealand is double tourism's contribution to

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Speaker 3: national GDP. So I think no one shutting anyone down.

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Speaker 3: We're all rowing in the same direction, but they're all one.

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Speaker 2: They were like, no regional subsidy. You need to sort

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Speaker 2: it out yourself if you if you're going to shut

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Speaker 2: down a regional route as a Timaru.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think there are parts of New Zealand that

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Speaker 3: rely on air travel as their primary form of connectivity.

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Speaker 3: Be to Maru, be It Hokatika, be it Gisbon, be

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Speaker 3: it Kerry Kerry. You know, we take flying in and

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Speaker 3: out of those regions extremely seriously. We know that it

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Speaker 3: is a lot more than a commercial decision. It's a

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Speaker 3: lifeline service at times, and we will do everything we

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Speaker 3: can and everything we should be doing to ensure that

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Speaker 3: connectivity remains.

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Speaker 2: So would you shut down to Maru?

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Speaker 3: There are no plans to shut down to Maru?

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Speaker 2: Is it one of the first ones, because I hear

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Speaker 2: that's not doing very well.

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Speaker 3: Well, it's not even in the option set of things

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Speaker 3: that I'm currently considering good.

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Speaker 2: So then you don't need the regional subsidy if you're

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Speaker 2: not thinking about shutting it down.

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Speaker 3: As I said to you, we're all focused on ensuring

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Speaker 3: New Zealand are connected to each other and New Zealand's But.

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Speaker 2: I would argue, as a taxpayer which has a you know,

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Speaker 2: a shareholding any New Zealand, your primary job is not

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Speaker 2: to connect. Your primary job is to make money. Isn't it.

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Speaker 3: Life without simple health?

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Speaker 2: I wish it was? But question on that why is

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Speaker 2: Quantus doing so much better than you guys?

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Speaker 3: Look, that's a question for quantas they operate in a

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Speaker 3: very different market to the one we operate in, but

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Speaker 3: also the same market to an extent. They operate out

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Speaker 3: of New Zealand, but their main focus isn't New Zealand.

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Speaker 3: We operate in a very different market under different market dynamics.

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Speaker 3: We've also, you know, got a very young fleet. We've

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Speaker 3: been investing in the long term health of the business.

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Speaker 3: We're operating in an economy that is starting to turn.

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Speaker 3: But you know the last few years have been fairly

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Speaker 3: difficult for us getting out of COVID And and let's

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Speaker 3: not forget we've had the incredible bad luck of having

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Speaker 3: engine troubles, which means twenty percent of our fleet is

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Speaker 3: currently grounded.

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Speaker 2: So you've been unlucky right there. There's an element of

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Speaker 2: being unlucky here.

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Speaker 3: It's been tough.

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Speaker 2: How's your first two weeks as chief executive?

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Speaker 3: It's been a thrilling ride. It has been very full on,

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Speaker 3: but it's also you know, when you think about the

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Speaker 3: reasons you'd want to do this job for me, I

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Speaker 3: decided a while back that I dedicate my career to

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Speaker 3: a New Zealand Inc. Sort of a set of challenges

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Speaker 3: and doing a job like this is one of the

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Speaker 3: great honors really if that's what you want to do,

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Speaker 3: because you can actually have a major impact on the

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Speaker 3: future of the country. And what a privilege to do

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Speaker 3: a job like that too.

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Speaker 2: Right well, listen, I can only wish you well, Nicol,

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Speaker 2: and it's lovely to meet you, and thank you very

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Speaker 2: much for coming in and beast of luck with running

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Speaker 2: the company and hopefully your luck turns. Nicol Revshenker, Chief

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Speaker 2: Executive in New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: For more from Hither Duplessy Allan Drive, listen live to

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Speaker 1: news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

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