Air New Zealand

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.

To register your interest for this flight — and for any subsequent flights — please email the Air New Zealand Travel Centre in Apia at AIRNZSamoa@airnz.co.nz and provide your full legal name, passport number, citizenship, destination, and contact details.

If you have already registered your interest for a flight to New Zealand — either with the New Zealand High Commission in Samoa or with Air New Zealand — AND you are eligible to travel to New Zealand, Air New Zealand will contact you directly to discuss booking and payment options. This is a commercial flight so you will be required to pay for your tickets in advance of travel.

In a message to staff, chief executive Greg Foran said international travel made up two-thirds of the company's revenue and that was gone now for the forseeable future.

The airline is now expecting to earn less than $500m year. Before Covid-19, Air New Zealand had annual revenue of around $5.8 billion and a profit of $374m.

Foran said the only way the financial situation would improve was if New Zealanders embrace domestic travel after the lockdown was over.