Air New Zealand has appointed Calum Laming to the newly created role of General Manager Customer Experience.
Laming joins Air New Zealand from Abu Dhabi where he was most recently Head of Guest Experience for Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates. He joined Etihad initially to manage its First and Business Class customer experience before taking on overall responsibility for the strategic development of the airline's entire customer journey.
Laming has previously held senior customer experience and marketing roles at Virgin Atlantic and Procter and Gamble. He also has a strong operational background in airlines having held a number of in-flight and ground roles with British Airways' low cost carrier, Go.
Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon says Mr Laming was appointed to the role after an extensive worldwide search.
"Calum is a true industry leader and brings extremely valuable knowledge and experience to Air New Zealand. He will work closely with key partners across the business to further enhance our customer experience and ensure greater consistency across our on-the-ground and in-flight customer touch points," says Luxon.
Laming says he is delighted to be joining Air New Zealand as General Manager Customer Experience.
"Air New Zealand has an enviable global reputation and operates to very high standards. I look forward to working with the airline's team of industry experts at this exciting time in the airline's history to enhance an already strong and internationally renowned customer experience."
Laming holds a Masters of Arts in Modern and Medieval Languages from St. Catharine's College, University of Cambridge as well as a Masters of Science in Air Transport Management from the highly respected Air Transport Department of Cranfield University, which included a thesis focused on an analysis of customer experience within today's aviation industry.
About Air New Zealand
Air New Zealand is an Australasian airline with a Pacific Rim focus, operating, on average, 500 flights a day within a network of 52 cities in 16 countries including 27 destinations within New Zealand. North American services include daily, non-stop flights to New Zealand from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Vancouver, and Los Angeles non-stop to the Cook Islands and London.
Consistently rated among the world's best international airlines, Air New Zealand was named 'Airline of the Year' by Air Transport World in 2010 and 2012. Air New Zealand's success is grounded by a focus on true product innovation and a commitment to delivering a world-class flight experience to every customer.
A proud member of Star Alliance, Air New Zealand customers enjoy reciprocal loyalty rewards, services and greater connectivity through the Alliance's global network of airline partners. It's who we are - Ko matou enei.
For more information about Air New Zealand visit www.airnewzealand.com and for information about Star Alliance visit www.staralliance.com.
