Air New Zealand

TV1 Samoa reports most of the arrivals were returning seasonal workers who have completed their contracts in Aotearoa.

Also on board were Samoans who have been stranded in New Zealand since March when the country closed its borders.

All arriving passengers will be tested for Covid-19 and undergo 14 days of supervised quarantine.

Repatriation flights to Samoa were suspended last month after New Zealand was hit with a second wave of the virus.

As soon as the announcement was made that distancing would no longer be required on planes, Air New Zealand CEO Greg Foran says the airline immediately made more tickets available.

"That put on the market about 160,000 more seats."

In six hours, the airline sold 70,000 seats yesterday, he says.

Foran told Morning Report this is what happens when the airline has the opportunity to operate the domestic airline at full potential.

During level one, the airline's prices increased by 13 percent.

In May, the airline grounded most of its seven 777-300 aircraft until the end of the 2020 calendar year. It signalled it was unlikely to fly its eight 777-200 aircraft in the foreseeable future and began preparing to send these into long term storage overseas.

In a release, the airline said four of the aircraft will be stored in Victorville in the Californian desert and three would remain in Auckland where they can be used if required.

Cam Wallace will step down from 30 September but will continue to provide support to chief executive Greg Foran until the end of the year.

In a statement, Foran said Wallace, who has been with the airline for 19 years, told him that he wanted to pursue other opportunities for his global career ambitions given the airline had now effectively become a domestic carrier.

Foran praised Wallace for his contribution, saying the airline's passenger and cargo revenues had experienced growth under his leadership.

Air New Zealand is about to dip into the government loan after reporting huge losses yesterday.

The carrier reported the biggest corporate loss in recent history and its first loss in 18 years - a deficit of $454m for the year ended June compared with the previous year's $276m profit.

Much of the loss centred on the costs associated with 4000 redundancies, asset writedowns and grounded planes. Stripped of these one-off costs, the underlying loss was $87m.

The carrier reported an after-tax loss of $454 million for the year ended June compared with the previous year's $276m profit.

Much of the loss was because of write downs in the value of planes, and restructuring costs as it cut costs and sacked about 4,000 staff, which altogether totalled $541m.

Stripping out one-off costs its underlying loss was $87m against $387m profit, as revenue fell 16 percent to $4.84 billion. The airline has received more than $100m in wage subsidies.

Their products are desperately needed in the islands and some are perishable. But, they are being taken off with no warning given.

Blair Krill from exporting company SAMEX Ltd, which sources a wide variety of products from suppliers around New Zealand for Pacific customers, said 95 per cent of its business is done in the islands and its taking a devastating hit.

“Air New Zealand quite frankly don’t give a damn, our freight rates have gone up 300 to 400 per cent," he said.

In an update on its earnings expectations, the company said the recent move to alert level 1 has enabled the airline to slowly restart the domestic network, however revenue and earnings are significantly lower than expected prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.

It said it was now expecting an underlying operating loss of $120m.

But there are other significant one-off items which will boost the bottom line result.

The company is estimating re-structuring costs, including redundancies, will be between $140 and $160m

Samoa's government has confirmed that passenger services from Auckland to Apia will now begin Friday 29 May.

It is the first in a series of five fortnightly flights to return nationals and residents, although more are expected.

This week's flight will go ahead but with cargo only.

Government data showed there were over a thousand people waiting to return to Samoa.

Beyond New Zealand, Samoa's foreign office said there were nationals across Australia, Asia, North America and neighbouring Pacific countries.

The Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi confirmed this, while issuing a reminder about the touchdown of the flight.

 “We are looking at 150 passengers to be on this flight, but there are about 900 people wishing to return to Samoa,” said the Prime Minister.

“The priority will be for returning residents who already paid return airfares from Samoa-New Zealand-Samoa, and whose visitor’s visas have expired, and should return home.