Air New Zealand suspended trading in its shares and is preparing for big job cuts.
It may lay off nearly 4,000 employees, about 30% of the current workforce.
The trading halt will now give the airline ‘more time to more fully assess the operational and financial impacts of global travel restrictions,’ CEO Greg Foran said.
"As a result of the downturn in travel Air New Zealand continues to review its cost base and will need to start the process of redundancies for permanent positions, acknowledging the important role partnering with unions has in this process," the airline announced in a statement.
Foran says measures already taken such as unpaid leave don’t go far enough if the airline is to get through the coronavirus crisis in a healthy financial state.
"We are now accepting that for the coming months at least Air New Zealand will be a smaller airline requiring fewer resources, including people," he said.
"We are working on redeployment opportunities for some of our staff within the airline and also to support other organisations."
The airline is working with unions to ‘ensure the right outcome for all staff.’
Air NZ is planning to slash long haul routes including the suspension of the London-Los Angeles service Auckland to Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, and Vancouver among others.
It doesn’t plan to axe any domestic routes but capacity will be reduced by about 30%.
