Gregg Anderson, Tourism New Zealand's General Manager, Western long-haul markets, North America & Europe, with
Roger Poulton, V.P., The Americas,
Air New Zealand
Part of the NZ team: Antony Price,
Director of Sales & Market Development,
The Americas; Bruce McIntosh, Airport Operations Manager, Vancouver;
Sabrina Bernacchia, Sales Manager, Eastern Canada; Roger Poulton, V.P., The Americas & Doug Seifert, Sales Manager, Canada
Rosemary Henson, Boomerang Tours, with Marilyn Bryson & Thom Ryan, Goway
AC's Michael Casement & Monica O'Brien chats with Sean Bonar, NZ cabin crew
It has only been 5 years but boy, did NZ make those 5 years count! So say the agents in attendance at the celebrations.
Held in the upper lobby of the Arts Club Stage on Granville Island, the NZ contingent comprised staff from YVR, LAX, cabin crew and pilots. Doug Seifert, Sales Manager for Canada, provided a recap of the airline’s connection with YVR. NZ 1st flew into YVR in 1971 via HNL. This service ended in 1992. In 2007, it returned, offering direct flights twice or thrice weekly, depending on the season.
“It is because of our partners who have made this route so successful,” said Roger Poulton, NZ’s V.P. for The Americas. Poulton thanked agents for supporting NZ and praised their codeshare partnership with AC.
Also in town for the festivities was Tourism New Zealand's General Manager - Western, long-haul markets for North America and Europe, Gregg Anderson. “Canada is 1 of the most frustrating markets in that there aren’t enough seats (nor flights),” he said. Nonetheless, Anderson is hoping to help achieve the tourist board’s target numbers of 52,000 Canadian arrivals, up from 2011’s 49,000.
Both Poulton and Anderson unabashedly sung the praises of NZ’s cabin crew saying they are the best in the world, adding that if one were to fly around North America, this would be very apparent. On the topic of cabin crew, the airline recently unveiled its latest extremely creative and entertaining inflight safety video featuring characters and themes from The Hobbit. Also appearing in the video are Gollum, 2 great grandsons of J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Hobbit, and Peter Jackson, the filmmaker behind The Lord of the Rings trilogy and now, The Hobbit. The highly anticipated upcoming movie release of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, shot in several locations around the country, is scheduled for December. NZ is touting itself as “The airline of Middle-Earth."
Catering to demand, NZ will increase its current twice weekly service to 5 flights a week from mid-December to end-February. As Gandalf said, it’s time to “Fly you fools!”
