Airline sale 'a scandal’

Press, 30 December 1988, Page 2

Airline sale 'a scandal’

PA Tauranga Air New Zealand’s colours and name will be swept from the skies inside five years, predicts a former chairman of the airline, Mr Bob Owens. Speaking from Chile yesterday he said terms of the Air New Zealand sale were a national scandal and an incredible Christmas gift to its main competitors.

“I was shaken when I heard the news,” Mr Owens said. “The New Zealand Government has virtually given the airline away.

“The international landing rights alone, fought for so hard over the last 30 years, are worth more than the all-up sale price.

“That is before you even start talking about the aircraft and associated equipment and facilities.

“It could have been privatised domestically. And if it had to be sold off to outsiders I believe British Airways’ offer should have been given preference.

“It is a complementary competitor from the opposite side of the world and the northern hemisphere.

“Qantas and Japan Airlines are Air New Zealand’s fiercest competitors.

“No matter what the Government claims I guarantee Air New Zealand will vanish as an entity inside five years, and its planes will be in the air with the colours of those new owners.” Mr Owens said the sale agreement was a “disgusting exhibition by an inept Government” which had cynically finalised the sale right on Christmas when the New Zealand public had its mind on other matters. “Ordinary New Zealanders are ignorant of the real value of many of these assets now being sold off,” he said. “They are also apathetic, so they possibly deserve what they are getting.”