Air NZ accuses Origin of abandoning customers
Air New Zealand has accused Origin Pacific of “abandoning” its stranded passengers and misleading them by telling them that the national carrier would honour their travel arrangements.
The regional airline collapsed last night after it failed in its bid to find an investor to make an urgent multi-million dollar injection of capital.
Origin Pacific managing director Robert Inglis said talks had been held with Air New Zealand on Wednesday evening.
He believed an arrangement acceptable to both parties had been reached on the rescue of stranded passengers.
However, he had since been told that deal was off.
Air New Zealand chief financial officer Rob McDonald said this morning it was “extremely concerned that Origin has abandoned its customers in such a cavalier manner” and was continuing to tell its customers arrangements had been made for them to travel on Air New Zealand.
“Based on the information that Origin Pacific has released to the market, it is operating as a solvent business that is capable of paying its bills,” he said.
“However, it seems to have unilaterally decided it can abandon its thousands of customers despite having accepted payment of in excess of $1 million for their fares.”
Air New Zealand wanted to establish what had happened to the money passengers had paid for their fares before any decision would be made on re-accommodating them, Mr McDonald said.
An Origin spokesperson said, “We no longer have a passenger services company. Our call centre staff lost their jobs last night.”
He said there was a “handful of management staff trying to do their best” but they just could not deal with hundreds of passengers and was advising them to call alternative carriers.
Graham Muldoon
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Phocuswright reveals the world's largest travel markets in volume in 2025
Higher departure tax and visa cost, e-arrival card: Japan unleashes the fiscal weapon against tourists
Singapore to forbid entry to undesirable travelers with new no-boarding directive
Cyclone in Sri Lanka had limited effect on tourism in contrary to media reports
Euromonitor International unveils world’s top 100 city destinations for 2025