Page 12 - AAA MAY - JUNE 2018 Online Magazine

Pioneering Moves
o, what is the tangible ben-
efit to the bottom line of
being an innovator? There
Sis no better example than
the kiwi airline Air New Zealand
which has striven to be an innovator
ever since it was restructured after
the privatization and Ansett deba-
cle of the late 1990s. Through its
pioneering adoption of technology
and impactful marketing activity, the
carrier has become a halo brand
for New Zealand globally and is
now the most respected company
in Australia which is an extraordi-
nary feat considering how cynical
Australians are of their Kiwi cousins.
Chief Executive Officer Christopher
Luxon, recognizes that the airline’s
success is intertwined with New first for children flying unaccompa- to again reinvent the travel expe-
Zealand’s success as a country. nied, giving parents and guardians rience as it did in 2010. Across the
This awareness underpins the air- the opportunity to follow each step region and the further afield Air
line’s commitment to a purpose of their young one’s journey from New Zealand has become the air-
bigger than itself: to supercharge wherever they are in the world and line to watch in the innovation field
New Zealand’s success - socially, robotic technology for engineering and premium passengers flock to
environmentally and economically. staff to inspect aircraft fuselages the carrier. Considering it is located
And the staff, empowered with the more closely and a coffee order- at the bottom of the globe and the
very latest in product and technol- ing function on its mobile app for end of the line from a network per-
ogy are supercharged and have Air New Zealand lounge customers spective and with a largely rural
delivered record profits. and an Apple Watch app. economy Air New Zealand’s focus
The airline is delivering the best Now the airline is going back to on innovation shows what can be
commercial performance of any the drawing board on it cabin fit achieved for the bottom line.
Australasian carrier and is one of a
handful of investment grade-rated
airlines in the world. It has outper-
formed its Asia-Pacific competitors
in its operating profit margins con-
sistently for the past three years
up to FY17 with an operating profit
margin of 10.6 percent compared
to Qantas with 9.9 percent and
Singapore Airlines with 4.4 percent.
The list of firsts for the airline in the
region are many; first with Premium
Economy; first with 787-9, first with
A320 and A321neos, first with
winglets on the 767, first to retire
passenger 747s; designed the
Economy Skycouch; Chatbot Bravo
Oscar Tango – artificial intelligence
(AI) to help with Air in the New
Zealand Lounge; Airband, a world

12 | May/June 2018 www.GBP.com.sg/AAA