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Foran has overseen the refurbishment of Air New Zealand’s 787-9 Dreamliner fleet. (Air New Zealand)
‘I’d score myself a 7 out of 10’: Greg Foran bids farewell to Air New Zealand
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After a tumultuous half a decade at the head of New Zealand’s flag carrier, CEO Greg Foran is finally saying “e noho rā” to the airline. It was in October 2019 that Foran was announced as the successor to Christopher Luxon. Fast-forward to 3 February 2020, when he got his feet under the desk, and things looked far less rosy: global concern was rising about the novel coronavirus emerging from China, and on the very day Foran started, borders with China were beginning to close, with the airline having just halted its Shanghai services. Just over a month later, New Zealand shut up shop completely, with only returning citizens and residents allowed into the country from 11:59pm on 19 March. So began a daunting first few years at the top, and a crisis to which Foran had to adapt – and adapt quickly.
“I’ve learned – and I’ve spoken about this a number of times – to panic slowly: you have to deal with the situation that you face,” he says. “I did start on the day that we stopped flying to Shanghai, and then six weeks later, the entire airline was effectively shut down. We had periods where we opened it, periods where we paused, periods when we were only open to Australia, and that went on for over two years. Then, of course, the mad rush to open everything. Everyone’s experienced that – have you got enough pilots, enough engineers, do you have enough cabin crew? Can you get parts?
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