Controllable Cancellations Declining at Air New Zealand

By Andrew Curran.

The CEO of Air New Zealand says he expects the rate of controllable cancellations at the carrier to keep decreasing as its inventory of spare parts keeps rising.

Speaking to the New Zealand Herald, CEO Nikhil Ravishankar said around 2% of the approximately 170,000 flights operated by the airline each year get cancelled because of either engine, aircraft, or crew issues.

“We call them controllable cancellations,” he said. “By and large, they typically tend to skew towards our engineering side.”

But Ravishankar says it’s not a engineering labour force matter. Rather, it’s a matter of spare parts.

“The global aviation supply chain has been very stretched,” he said. “But our spare parts reserves are starting to improve. (Because of this), over the last month or so, our cancellation rate has been very low – we are under 1% for controllable cancellations… World class is 1%.”

Another 1% of flights are cancelled because of uncontrollable events, such as weather, giving Air New Zealand an overall annual cancellation rate of about 3%.

Another two years to resolve Air New Zealand engine issues

Ravishankar adds that it will take another 18 to 24 months to fully resolve the engine issues that have plagued Air New Zealand’s A320neo and B787-9 aircraft. At times, between nine and 11 aircraft have remained grounded since the beginning of the 2026 financial year.

“The longest pole in the tent is going to be our A320 narrowbody aircraft because of our Pratt & Whitney engine issues,” said the CEO.

FlightRadar24 data shows one of Air New Zealand’s six A320-200Ns and three of its fourteen A321-200NX are presently out-of-service.

Ravishankar quietly optimistic about resolving strike threat

Meanwhile, to avoid the controllable cancellation rate spiking, Ravishankar says Air New Zealand is doing everything it can to avoid threatened strike action on December 8.

Aero South Pacific recently reported on an “overwhelming” vote by Air New Zealand’s approximately 1,200 flight attendants to strike before the end of the year, after trying for months to get better pay and rosters through collective agreement negotiations.

The strike notice received by Air New Zealand covers the one day, but Ravishankar says up to 15,000 passengers may be impacted.

“We’re meeting again with the unions this week,” he said. “I’m still hopeful that it (the strike) won’t get there. But if it did go down that path, we’ve got teams working hard to ensure that customer disruptions are kept to a minimum.”

Air New Zealand flight attendants are paid between NZD58,000 (USD32,500) and NZA85,000 (USD47,700) per annum. E tū Union Director Michael Wood says this is not enough money for the hours they work. Almost all of Air New Zealand’s flight attendants are union members.

Should the strike go ahead, Air New Zealand will try to keep most flights operating across the day. “We are looking at options of how we can deal with it on a progressive basis,” said Ravishankar. “We think we can keep disruptions to a minimum, but we will have to cancel some flights.”

“I think our objectives are aligned,” he added. “We are trying to find the right solution and do the right thing.

Nikhil Ravishankar has been Air New Zealand’s CEO since mid-October, having replaced Greg Foran. “It’s been one hell of a five week period for me in my new role.”

Photo: Air New Zealand.