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Speaker 1: Now Air New Zealand a the problems get worse. They're

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Speaker 1: under pressure now to save Christmas for thousands of travelers

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Speaker 1: because the cabin crew union has told the airline its

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Speaker 1: workers are going to go on strike on December. The

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Speaker 1: eighth Air New Zealand is saying if the strike does

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Speaker 1: go ahead, it could unpack fifteen thousand travelers over the weekend.

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Speaker 1: The airline also faced criticism from two prominent business commentator

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Speaker 1: Sam Stubbs in one newspaper and Bruce Cottrell in another

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Speaker 1: newspaper for a sliding performance in the price of flying

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Speaker 1: and Bruce Cottrell is with us.

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Speaker 2: Now, Hi, Bruce, good aheader.

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Speaker 1: What about that strike? Did you think Jesus can't get

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Speaker 1: any worse?

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Speaker 2: Well, it could always get worse, I suppose. But it's

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Speaker 2: just about setting our expectations, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Well yeah, but setting our is the expectation, not

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Speaker 1: set by the price though, Bruce, And the price is

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Speaker 1: so high exactly.

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Speaker 2: Well, And that's what I tried to say in the

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Speaker 2: column here, that this is it's not a cheap service,

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Speaker 2: is it. It's and you expect performance when you're paying

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Speaker 2: a thousand bucks to fly return to Wellington? Yeah, and

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Speaker 2: you do expect to live performance and that level of

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Speaker 2: performance isn't there at the moment. So it's frustrating. It's

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Speaker 2: frustrating for travelers. I'm sure it's frustrating for Air New

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Speaker 2: Zealand as well.

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Speaker 1: I wonder, I mean, what set you off, what got

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Speaker 1: you to finally write this column. Was the new CEO

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Speaker 1: basically saying everything was fine at the airline. I just

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Speaker 1: wanted because I'd also picked that up. And I just

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Speaker 1: wonder if they do not realize how how opinion is

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Speaker 1: turning against them, what do you think?

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Speaker 2: I think? I think a couple of things. One was

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Speaker 2: one was that comment, and you're quite right when he

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Speaker 2: said that the airline was in fantastic shape when he

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Speaker 2: was on with Mike one morning. The other comment that

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Speaker 2: really grated me was after arriving in Wellington an hour

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Speaker 2: and twenty five minutes late and missing a meeting, for

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Speaker 2: the pilot to come on the speaker and apologize for

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Speaker 2: being quote a bit late. You know, I just and

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Speaker 2: that's that's what I mean about expectations. If the if

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Speaker 2: the team are in New Zealand are lowering their expectations

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Speaker 2: and an hour and twenty five is just a bit late,

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Speaker 2: then those expectations will never recover. And you know yourself, right,

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Speaker 2: if you don't aspire to be better, you'll never be better.

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Speaker 2: And that's and we just need we just need a

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Speaker 2: bit of amph as a country at the moment. It's

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Speaker 2: not just in New Zealand. I think the whole country

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Speaker 2: needs it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think you're right. Do you think that

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Speaker 1: we're just kind of becoming a bit mediocre in our brains?

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Speaker 2: Well, I don't know if we're becoming mediocre, but I

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Speaker 2: do think if you know we're sitting around but still

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Speaker 2: blaming COVID, then there's something wrong with us. You know,

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Speaker 2: we are a country that have become what we what

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Speaker 2: we are, or what we at least were until recently,

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Speaker 2: by boxing above our weight. And I think we're starting

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Speaker 2: to see a lot of evidence of not wanting to

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Speaker 2: do that anymore for whatever reason. And you know, I

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Speaker 2: put off writing that column for two years because I

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Speaker 2: don't want to knock in New Zealand, but gee, it's

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Speaker 2: getting hard to remain silent. And the feedback that we've

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Speaker 2: had over the weekend as a result of the column

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Speaker 2: would indicate that I'm not the only one that's feeling

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Speaker 2: like that.

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Speaker 1: You're not You're not the only one at all. And and

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Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about this later on actually, because

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Speaker 1: I think you're onto something there. How long before you

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Speaker 1: start flying Jetstar.

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Speaker 2: Well, as I say in the column, I don't want

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Speaker 2: to be that guy. I want I want Air New

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Speaker 2: Zealand to be outrageously successful. And I don't want to

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Speaker 2: be the person that takes the cheaper option or flies

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Speaker 2: with flies with the enemy. I'd rather do everything I

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Speaker 2: can to support New Zealand or end z inc or

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Speaker 2: whatever you want to call it. But we do have

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Speaker 2: to lift our sites. We have to lift our own

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Speaker 2: expectations of ourselves and of the businesses that are there

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Speaker 2: to service. Otherwise we will We'll end up going to

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Speaker 2: do something else.

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Speaker 1: And Air New Zealand is losing the loyal customers. So

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Speaker 1: what is your one tip to Air New Zealand if

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Speaker 1: you could give them one.

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Speaker 2: If I could get them give them one tip, I

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Speaker 2: would say, recover the aspiration to be the best airline

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Speaker 2: in the world and give you people at the front

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Speaker 2: line who are interacting with your customers, the permission to

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Speaker 2: solve the customers problem.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Bruce, thank you very much. It's so good to

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Speaker 1: talk to. You appreciate it. Bruce Cottural professional director, business

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Speaker 1: leader and advisor, and of course our Herald columnist, which

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Speaker 1: is where he wrote it in the Herald. You know,

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Speaker 1: honestly that column got I got. I got sent that

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Speaker 1: column randomly by one of my friends, and then I

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Speaker 1: had to talk to the boss over the weekend, who

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Speaker 1: just brought it up. He's like, oh, did you see

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Speaker 1: what Bruce said. Everybody's talking about the column. If you

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Speaker 1: haven't read the column, go and read the column. We're

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Speaker 1: going to talk about it because I have I have

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Speaker 1: more disounder, but I don't have time right now. I'm

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Speaker 1: going to talk about it with you later on.

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