Air New Zealand said on Wednesday that the moves would help it cut costs by more than a fifth over 15 years, with a move to the new location taking place next year. Chief Executive Officer Greg Foran said: "We have more space than we need in the Auckland central business district (CBD) and are already paying for a precinct at the airport that has more than enough space to meet even our most ambitious growth projections," Foran added that the decision was taken due to rising building costs and the firm's leases in the CBD were coming to an end.
The firm had shed more than 4000 employees at the start of the pandemic and had more space than it needed for its much slimmed-down operations. The amount of job losses that consolidating operations at the airport will cause has not yet been released.
In recent weeks many of the carrier's passengers have complained about the long wait times to get through to staff regarding reservations, missing money and cancelled flights. Whilst the average waiting time for the phone to be answered is currently 58 minutes, many say they've been waiting for between two and three hours.
The carrier, which is just starting to rebuild its international network after the covid pandemic closed the nation's borders also plans to build a new hangar at the airport. Air New Zealand has already started flights between Auckland and San Francisco, and has said its services to Honolulu will restart on 4 July, flights to Houston are set to start on 7 July and services to New York are scheduled to begin on 17 September.
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