1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,040
Speaker 1: Greek Forren has delivered his final profit as the boss

2
00:00:03,040 --> 00:00:04,680
Speaker 1: of Air New Zealand before he leaves in a couple

3
00:00:04,720 --> 00:00:07,400
Speaker 1: of months time. The airline offered him an extra nine

4
00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:09,879
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars to stay on, but he decided to

5
00:00:09,960 --> 00:00:12,720
Speaker 1: leave anyway. In New Zealand made an annual net profit

6
00:00:12,760 --> 00:00:14,920
Speaker 1: after tax of one hundred and twenty six million dollars.

7
00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:17,000
Speaker 1: That is down fourteen percent on the year before, and

8
00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:18,960
Speaker 1: Gregor is with us. Hello, greg Hi there, how are you?

9
00:00:19,160 --> 00:00:19,560
Speaker 2: I'm well?

10
00:00:19,600 --> 00:00:22,079
Speaker 1: Thank you your final result, but as sweet.

11
00:00:22,800 --> 00:00:25,880
Speaker 2: Yes it is. You know, I've been almost six years

12
00:00:25,880 --> 00:00:30,080
Speaker 2: at the airline and been incredibly enjoyable. So bit sad

13
00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:32,400
Speaker 2: leaving a number of people in a few weeks time,

14
00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:37,080
Speaker 2: but also excited for Nickel and his opportunity and also

15
00:00:37,159 --> 00:00:40,479
Speaker 2: for the rest of the team. Yeah do you.

16
00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:42,159
Speaker 1: I mean, it's been a tough industry to be in

17
00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:45,120
Speaker 1: the last few years. It probably couldn't have been worse.

18
00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:46,400
Speaker 1: Are you happy to put it behind you?

19
00:00:48,560 --> 00:00:51,080
Speaker 2: Do? You know? As you reflect on these things, you

20
00:00:51,159 --> 00:00:54,200
Speaker 2: always learn more when it's hard than when things are easy.

21
00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:57,200
Speaker 2: So I do actually appreciate the fact that it has

22
00:00:57,320 --> 00:01:01,200
Speaker 2: been difficult, and you know, whether it was starting when

23
00:01:01,280 --> 00:01:05,600
Speaker 2: COVID began and doing capital raises and then hurriedly having

24
00:01:05,640 --> 00:01:09,080
Speaker 2: to restart the business and sort of a parade of

25
00:01:09,120 --> 00:01:12,199
Speaker 2: engine challenges. And now we've got a few other headwinds.

26
00:01:12,680 --> 00:01:15,440
Speaker 2: But you learn. And I would say to you that

27
00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:17,880
Speaker 2: I'm proud of what we've done and what we're doing

28
00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:20,040
Speaker 2: and the way we're setting ourselves up.

29
00:01:20,200 --> 00:01:21,200
Speaker 1: So why are you leaving?

30
00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:25,160
Speaker 2: Well, I've got another, you know, itch that I need

31
00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:27,200
Speaker 2: to scratch in terms of what I want to do,

32
00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:29,920
Speaker 2: and I can't share anything about that at this stage.

33
00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:32,840
Speaker 1: So there is something here. It's not just lying in

34
00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:33,240
Speaker 1: the sun.

35
00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:40,040
Speaker 2: No. And secondly, if you've got succession in place at

36
00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:42,080
Speaker 2: a point in time, you need to let people get

37
00:01:42,080 --> 00:01:44,360
Speaker 2: on and do that because otherwise you stand the risk

38
00:01:44,360 --> 00:01:44,959
Speaker 2: of losing them.

39
00:01:45,080 --> 00:01:47,120
Speaker 1: Can you at least tell us if your etches locally

40
00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:47,919
Speaker 1: or overseas?

41
00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:49,840
Speaker 2: I can't this stage. I'm sorry.

42
00:01:49,840 --> 00:01:50,680
Speaker 1: We heard the rumors.

43
00:01:51,040 --> 00:01:53,560
Speaker 2: I've not heard any room or too busy.

44
00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:57,560
Speaker 1: The rumors are either that you're the new Rugby boss.

45
00:01:58,480 --> 00:01:59,800
Speaker 2: I've not heard that rumor.

46
00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:02,360
Speaker 1: And as I said, so we can scratch that one off,

47
00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:02,680
Speaker 1: can we?

48
00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:04,920
Speaker 2: I have no knowledge of anything.

49
00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:07,720
Speaker 1: Now, listen, profit down this year profit down last year,

50
00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:09,360
Speaker 1: When does it turn around? Do you think?

51
00:02:10,360 --> 00:02:13,040
Speaker 2: I think we're in for another challenging year this year,

52
00:02:13,080 --> 00:02:16,880
Speaker 2: to be honest, so perhaps the year after, but it's

53
00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:18,840
Speaker 2: going to be tough this year. Is it the difference

54
00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,160
Speaker 2: different set of circumstances. We're still dealing with engines. We

55
00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:26,480
Speaker 2: don't expect any significant improvement there, and we've said, you know, look,

56
00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:29,760
Speaker 2: we came in at one hundred and eighty nine pre tax.

57
00:02:29,800 --> 00:02:31,880
Speaker 2: We would have done another one hundred and sixty five

58
00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:33,760
Speaker 2: million on top of that if we could have flown

59
00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:37,880
Speaker 2: what we wanted to. We ended up flying less than

60
00:02:37,919 --> 00:02:39,919
Speaker 2: what we did the previous year, which is never what

61
00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:43,440
Speaker 2: you want to do, but that's what happens. The economy

62
00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:47,000
Speaker 2: is still pretty tough out there domestically, and you know that,

63
00:02:47,160 --> 00:02:51,200
Speaker 2: and your listeners know it, our customers know it. So

64
00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:54,079
Speaker 2: we're dealing with that, and we're seeing that with sort

65
00:02:54,080 --> 00:02:57,320
Speaker 2: of less government spend, less corporate spend and even leisure travel.

66
00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,720
Speaker 2: Domestically is still pretty tough. But the other thing that

67
00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:04,240
Speaker 2: we're leaning into is we get a fair amount of

68
00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:08,040
Speaker 2: inflation coming our way, and inflation that you would expect

69
00:03:08,080 --> 00:03:10,440
Speaker 2: on things like spare parts comes our way. And it's

70
00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:13,239
Speaker 2: been forty percent over the last five years, but it's

71
00:03:13,320 --> 00:03:16,520
Speaker 2: ten percent again on top of that this year. But

72
00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:19,360
Speaker 2: then we're seeing other services that we get and that

73
00:03:19,400 --> 00:03:23,920
Speaker 2: could be CIA Airways, airports. If I just took those

74
00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,720
Speaker 2: three that the airports, a CIA, av SEC and airways,

75
00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:32,320
Speaker 2: that's laid in eighty four million dollars worth of cost

76
00:03:32,360 --> 00:03:34,720
Speaker 2: for us just this year. So we're going to work

77
00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:36,840
Speaker 2: out how to become more efficient. We're doing some of that,

78
00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:40,720
Speaker 2: lots of things that I could talk about, but as

79
00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:42,960
Speaker 2: well as that, we absorb a bit and you can

80
00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,400
Speaker 2: see that in the profit result and then of course

81
00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:46,560
Speaker 2: you do have to pass some on.

82
00:03:46,960 --> 00:03:51,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, so do you have I mean, as a guy

83
00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:54,840
Speaker 1: leaving and leaving an industry where it is really tough

84
00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:57,400
Speaker 1: to the point that we have regional airlines asking for help,

85
00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:01,160
Speaker 1: what would be your advice to the government to help them?

86
00:04:01,440 --> 00:04:05,200
Speaker 2: Well, I would look a field and say what do

87
00:04:05,240 --> 00:04:08,480
Speaker 2: you see happening elsewhere? And you know, if I look

88
00:04:08,480 --> 00:04:13,200
Speaker 2: at Australia, twenty seven to twenty eight million people, two

89
00:04:13,280 --> 00:04:19,599
Speaker 2: airlines and they struggle to make a regional airline work.

90
00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:23,760
Speaker 2: Example REX, So I think REX recently got about a

91
00:04:23,800 --> 00:04:27,120
Speaker 2: fifty million dollar bailout by the Australian government in order

92
00:04:27,120 --> 00:04:32,200
Speaker 2: to keep flying two locations. Similar sorts of things happen

93
00:04:32,279 --> 00:04:35,400
Speaker 2: in the US. If I look in places like Finland

94
00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:40,640
Speaker 2: and Sweden, I see that happening. If we want airlines

95
00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:44,280
Speaker 2: to operate in really remote locations, they're going to need

96
00:04:44,320 --> 00:04:48,680
Speaker 2: a hand. And that hand could come by having a

97
00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:51,960
Speaker 2: look at the total ecosystem and saying how do we

98
00:04:52,800 --> 00:04:55,440
Speaker 2: deal with all the costs that are in that ecosystem,

99
00:04:56,160 --> 00:05:00,760
Speaker 2: and or it could be some type of financial assistance.

100
00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:05,360
Speaker 2: It's tough running an airline, you know, they are really

101
00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:09,679
Speaker 2: capital intensive. We've made this year two cents and a dollar,

102
00:05:10,480 --> 00:05:12,599
Speaker 2: and I'm actually proud of the result. We had to

103
00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:15,520
Speaker 2: work really hard to do that. We've tried to keep

104
00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:17,839
Speaker 2: fears reasonable and at the end of the day, two

105
00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:21,320
Speaker 2: cents in the dollar and we've still got to buy

106
00:05:21,360 --> 00:05:24,279
Speaker 2: new planes. You know, we've got two new Boeings coming

107
00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:27,200
Speaker 2: in the beginning of next year. You don't get much

108
00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:29,479
Speaker 2: change out of two hundred million dollars for each plane.

109
00:05:29,760 --> 00:05:30,880
Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what if I was you, I'd

110
00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:32,320
Speaker 1: be very happy to leave two cents and a dollar

111
00:05:32,400 --> 00:05:34,880
Speaker 1: behind and go to greener pastures.

112
00:05:35,279 --> 00:05:35,600
Speaker 2: Tell me.

113
00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:37,160
Speaker 1: If you're not going to tell us what you're doing,

114
00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:38,720
Speaker 1: are you at least going to get a break before

115
00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:39,120
Speaker 1: you do it?

116
00:05:39,760 --> 00:05:43,120
Speaker 2: Look, that will depend on what I end up doing,

117
00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:47,960
Speaker 2: and I haven't decided yet. So maybe my wife loves me,

118
00:05:48,080 --> 00:05:50,280
Speaker 2: but she also loves me outworking.

119
00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:51,920
Speaker 1: Says every wife.

120
00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:52,240
Speaker 2: Greg.

121
00:05:52,240 --> 00:05:55,400
Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Greek for in New Zealand's chief executive.

122
00:05:56,080 --> 00:05:59,240
Speaker 1: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live to

123
00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:02,359
Speaker 1: news Talk said Be from four pm weekdays, or follow

124
00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:04,120
Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio