Air New Zealand nearly went under after buying an Australian airline outright
In 2000 Air New Zealand spent 680 million Australian dollars to take full control of Ansett, hoping to crack Australia's market. The rival was far larger than the buyer, and within about a year the New Zealand government had to step in with a rescue that left taxpayers owning 82 percent.
The airline grew out of Tasman Empire Airways, renamed on 1 April 1965. At first it flew only overseas, using its first jets, Douglas DC-8s, to reach Los Angeles and Honolulu, and the wide-body DC-10s of 1973 introduced the koru-inspired logo it still carries. In 1978 the government folded the domestic National Airways Corporation into it, which is why the carrier briefly ran two airline codes, TE abroad and NZ at home, until 1990.
The 1979 crash of Flight 901 on Mount Erebus badly damaged its standing. A Royal Commission criticised the airline and chief executive Morrie Davis resigned; the government and company formally apologised in 2019. Two years after the crash the first Boeing 747s arrived, each named after an ancestral Māori canoe, and London service via Los Angeles followed.
Privatised in 1989 under the Labour government's market reforms, it bought half of Ansett in 1995 and then the rest. The deal is widely seen as a critical error, since Ansett's fleet, staff and infrastructure dwarfed its own. The NZ$885 million rescue of October 2001 saved it from administration; the airline was profitable again by 2003, and in 2013 the state trimmed its holding to 53 percent.
Since then it has earned a reputation for comfort and safety. Its Economy Skycouch turns three seats into a flat surface, it launched the 787-9 variant, it won Airline of the Year in 2010 and 2012, and it was ranked the world's safest airline in 2014. It was also the last carrier to fly right round the globe, until London flights ended in 2020 and its Heathrow slots were sold to United.
Source: Air New Zealand
