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I travel. A lot. Last year I did around 200000 miles in the air and all of it was with Air New Zealand on their own, or their code share partner’s, flights. I spend a lot of time talking about… Read more

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

8 Comments
  • We go out of our way to fly AirNZ. No one else I’ve flown with even comes close, tho I’m yet to fly Virgin Atlantic which is ment to be good.

    Everyone else is in the “not too bad” category, except US domestic carriers, which are in the category of “claw my eyes out with a spoon, then loose my luggage”.

    It’s always fun to walk around Canary Wharf (London) and see the AirNZ folks dancing away on one of the big electronic billboards 🙂

  • I think that’s a great article for any company thinking about culture, and how it can impact the bottom line. The two are intertwined. The Kiwi way — I read as genuine, friendl, sharing, and caring — can be applied to any industry. Thanks Ben for sharing your interview results.

  • Flying with Air New Zealand is like how it should be. So how about that new uniform? When is that happening?

  • Ben, great piece and I couldn’t agree more. I look forward to every Air New Zealand flight. Unfortunately I have to use other providers from time to time (most recently Emirates and Singapore Airlines) and while they are both very professional airlines they lack the genuine and personal service that we get from Air New Zealand.

  • I have had the pleasure of working with various teams at Air New Zealand, including with the guys responsible for designing the new long haul experience and seating that will start flying at the end of the year. As a consultant who has been into many of NZ’s largest corporates I have to say Air NZ are hands down the culture I enjoying walking into most. I’ve thought about it a lot, why it is I enjoy it so much. There is some bias in that my father was an airline pilot for Cathay Pacific and I love the airline industry…that said I don’t think I would feel the same way walking into BA. Key for me is how empowered staff are…they have a voice and appear to have genuine power in the decision-making process…which I believe makes for happier staff.

    I was recently talking to someone about how great I thought Air NZ is and they made the comment that in fact they had found flying with Air NZ to be average and to be honest I have had similar experiences on a couple of flights…BUT…I have also had lots of great experiences. More importantly I think what makes Air NZ great is not where they are now but where they are going.

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