No one should have been surprised about Air New Zealand pulling the pin on its international services out of Hamilton. The writing has been on the wall for quite some time and with the economic downturn, you wouldn’t need to be a genius to work out that cutting costs will be the name of the game for an organization that relies heavily on the jealously guarded discretionary household dollar. It must be really disappointing for the airport staff who will now have to deal with the consequences and plan ahead accordingly.

Since the announcement was made, there has been a notable and dignified silence from the shareholding councils, along with talk about discussions being held with other carriers. While it would be great if something comes if this, we also need to be realistic. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg as far as fallout from the global economic crisis is concerned it’s hard to imagine airlines being in a rush to start services out of provincial New Zealand airports. 

One of the interesting developments has been the formation of BAN – Boycott Air New Zealand – spearheaded by PR guru and City Councillor, Gordon Chesterman. With Roger Hennebry at his side, Cr Chesterman is urging Waikato people to boycott our national carrier. It seems they have gathered a bit of a following judging by the letters to the editor.

I must admit I am in the complete opposite camp to our two esteemed civic leaders and I invite them to a debate.

My position is first and foremost based on the fact that we need to consider the long term impact of whatever actions we take in times of adversity. For example, businesses are facing incredible challenges at present; accordingly, many will have to consider cutting their staff numbers. The long term impact of this is that it will take some time to gather momentum when things pick up if resources are too thin, so decisions need to made carefully. The same situation applies in our relationship with Air New Zealand. While their decision may hurt, going out all guns blazing is not going to change their minds and it is definitely not going to endear us to them if they find themselves in the situation in the future of wanting to reinstate provincial airports to their international schedules. 

Some decisions are hard to take and sometimes the easy response is to lash out. If you have an eye on the long term picture, the best bet is to take it on the chin and wait for your next opportunity.

The next part of my debate has to do with how BAN makes us look to other potential carriers. I am not so sure that we are helping the cause by making a whole lot of noise about what Air New Zealand have done. All these people talk to one another. Many are aligned through code sharing arrangements and will definitely not want to feel as though they are coming to some wild west outpost where tough business decisions are greeted with an all out attack. 

Finally I must admit that I am a bit bemused by an appeal to not use my Government owned national carrier, effectively disadvantaging the organization and the country at a time when we need to help each other out as much as we can. I am proud of Air New Zealand. I love flying with them when I go overseas. It’s like you’re almost home when you board an Air New Zealand plane in a foreign country. It’s my airline. Why on earth would I boycott it and give my hard earned cash to another country? There’s already enough of that happening here. We have cause to feel a bit hard done by, but not to the extent that we should cut of our noses to spite our faces.

What we have had to face up to is a micro example of what is happening the world over, where a business facing tough times has had to make some tough calls. From there, the trickle down happens and the businesses close to the action take the direct hit and the businesses close to them take the next hit and so on it goes. The end result is that people lose their jobs and the money being injected into the economy decreases. 

In these times we need to look after our own and try to think of the long term picture. That’s the end of my end of the debate. Looking forward to the response from BAN.