AIRNZ: A black hole...

[bongo66]

Airnz could have stayed in their present building. Because it is your money they are spending they have decided to have offices built for them in the most sought after area in the Ak CBD:


Air NZ moving to new HQ at Viaduct

31.07.2004
By ANNE GIBSON
Air New Zealand is having a $60 million designer corporate headquarters built for it in Auckland's Viaduct Basin.

Despite talk about shifting out to Auckland Airport, the airline has just signed a deal to vacate its 25-level Quay Tower headquarters on the corner of Albert St and Customs St West and shift to the new building by 2006.

After losing prime waterfront views when its own landlord built the PricewaterhouseCoopers Tower in front of the airline's headquarters, the carrier is now about to reclaim its harbour views with its Viaduct move.

Listed Hong Kong-controlled developer Trans Tasman Properties will start building in September, putting up the airline's twin-building, six-level 19,745sq m structure on the corner of Fanshawe St and Beaumont St. About 950 staff will be brought together on the one site.

Trans Tasman chairman Don Fletcher said the new building would be leased solely to the airline on a 12-year term.

Air New Zealand managing director and chief executive Ralph Norris said the decision to move to a new building suited a number of objectives. "It's such a high profile site that it will considerably assist our marketing and branding objectives."

More evidence that once govt workers get hold of your money it doesnt matter how much of it they spend and what is more they spend it to justify their own positions.

Shameful, but to be expected in the world of black holes such as Railtrack, Kiwibank and AIRNZ.

Keeping tipping the money in, Bongo

[Gryffyn]

Maybe they should wait till the merger talks are over. HQ might end up in OZ!

[Cooper]

AirNZ was the first share I ever bought... took me from 26 cents to 70 cents, so if ever I was going to have an emotional attachment to a share this would be it... but I wouldn't buy ATM... stories like the one Bongo has posted, very low likelihood of an alliance with Qantas ever happening... I agree with you Bongo.

[willy_wonker]

How will AIRNZ fund their new planes? Will need a rights issue next year or so to pay for the new aricrafts.

[Lawso]

You're jumping to a false conclusion, Bongo. As I read the report, AirNZ will be the tenant on a 12-year lease. TTP is the developer and is presumably putting up the money and will own the building - or syndicate it. To make a judgement on whether Air is squandering our money surely you'd need to know how the new rent bill will compare with what it pays now.

Good point, though, about what would happen if the Air/Q alliance came into being - which it won't!

[Capitalist]

quote <Air New Zealand managing director and chief executive Ralph Norris said the decision to move to a new building suited a number of objectives. "It's such a high profile site that it will considerably assist our marketing and branding objectives." >


What a load of rubbish. How does this increase their profitability? Does anyone who buys an air ticket visit their Head Office?

*Snort* Tell me another.

Good one Bongo.

[Lawso]

Scoff if you wish, Cap, but you and Bongo still don't know how much extra the move will cost, if anything. For all we know it might cost less, if they vacate all those floors in the present building and shift other staff from elsewhere into the new building. Ot it might be a whole lot more efficient.

The point is that you don't know and I don't know but you are too quick to rubbish the board and management decision on imperfect information. IMO

BTW, I don't have AIR shares, never have, and hold no particular brief for the coy.

[bongo66]

Lawso, may i respectfully or disrespectfully? disagree with you.

Why not a head office on the city fringe, where the rent will be less or even at the airport where the logistical benefits can be realised?

Airlines world over are cutting costs to protect them from insolvency. Even Norris himself has said the future of the airline industry lies in the "low cost model" That means cutting costs ALL ROUND to cushion against the inevitable hard times that airlines ALWAYS face.

The largess that head office are affording themselves, I believe, comes from the knowledge that the Airlines financing is taxpayer funded and therefore they can be more frivolous with it than if it were fully funded by private shareholders.

May i also add Lawso, you are actually a shareholder of AirNZ whether you like it or not. So am I. That is why im a little testy if not a little flighty-pun intented.

Fly air Bongo, Its not off the ground yet but boy we have hired some cute non taxpayer funded hosties ,[8D] Bongo

[Steve]

I personally think that they should move the HQ somewhere nearer the airport. Has to be HEAPS cheaper than paying for the CBD...

[Lawso]

Re Air Bongo and it's hosties: Will we be allowed to try before we buy?

[airedale]

Reminds me of the old Auckland Harbour Board. It spent a heap of public money building their new head office on Prince's Wharf,just before the Board was disestablished and replaced by Ports of Auckland Ltd. POAL then sensibly moved closer to their main business action at Ferguson Wharf. And the new building was put up for sale eventually. It should never have been built in the first place.

Then there was the new ARA building up on Pitt St,built just before the ARA was replaced by a new body, and the new building cost the ratepayers a bundle when it remained only partly tenanted for years.

If Ralph Norris reckons that the new site will generate extra business, he should consider that there is/was a pefectly adequate advertising billboard on that corner. Considerably cheaper than a new building.
.

[Major von Tempsky]

At the back of Buffetology by Mary Buffett there's a list of industries which Buffett considers as "commodity" industries that he doesn't invest in - low barriers to entry, undifferentiated product, surplus of product, lots of competition, low profitability & &.
It includes airlines.
Nuff said.
Obviously it would also include Carter Holt.
I'm amazed that Air NZ and CAH shareprices are not even lower than they are. And some ignorant brokers still continue to push them.
Reminds me of 1987.