Supply and Services

The Supply & Services division of the AIA encompasses a wide range of companies including insurers, consultants, parts suppliers, fuel and oil distributors, manufacturers, and aviation support firms. Such diversity makes the division unique, but also leads to opportunities for collaboration between members for mutual benefit.

Projects

Working with Aviation New Zealand to assist members seeking export work in the South Pacific.
 
Barrie Malloch and Alan Peacock attended the Aviation South Pacific Association (ASPA) conference at Nadi, Fiji, and then ensured ASPA brought their summer conference to Christchurch last December 2008. Feedback was that this was the best ASPA conference yet held, and ASPA delegates got fantastic value out of our field trips to the Christchurch Engine Centre (CEC), Air New Zealand's No 1 hangar, Airways Corporation’s tower simulator and Mount Cook Airline’s ATR simulator facility.
 
The value of such efforts to NZ aviation is hard to quantify, but it is believed that returns of up to $20m could result. The trade displays at this conference gave members of Supply & Services a unique opportunity to showcase some of the best in Kiwi aviation skills and technology to a receptive audience.

 

Challenges

As a result of the global financial situation, the issue of tightening credit and cash flow is going to hurt some members. Cuts to interest rates and fuel prices have left more in the pocket, but already we are seeing larger suppliers tightening credit terms, while larger customers fall further behind in paying of accounts to smaller companies.
 
The policies of the previous government haven't helped, as taxpayers will be forced to make up losses incurred in investments overseas, with the resultant impact on business.
 
The division would much rather have seen this funding available for investment in low cost development loans within NZ.
 
Even now the government could do much to assist business in NZ by partnering the banking sector into provision of funding at reasonable interest rates to enable companies to gear-up to increase productivity, instead of leaving Kiwi businesses, many of them smaller firms, at the mercy of the banks, who one should not forget, have been a major cause of the problem in the first place. Government can assist here by issuing clear instructions that our government agencies should be working to assist Kiwi firms.
 
Government should work with industry to take advantage of issues raised within international forums, they attend these meetings and it is a challenge for this division and the industry in general, to ensure that information is transmitted to the areas it would be of best use.
 
Members of the Supply and Services division can count themselves lucky that they work in an industry where initiative and talent bring a premium and where the products and services produced in New Zealand are sought after on the world market. We need to leverage this talent strategically and work together collaboratively to offer cost-effective solutions and, to a degree, dig deep into our collective intuition to seek those uniquely Kiwi ways to weather the storm.
 

Chair

Rob Bolton
e: rob@petroleumlogistics.co.nz
t: +64 4 565 0737

Deputy Chair

Alan Peacock
e: alan@flightsigns.co.nz
t: +64 3 358 0470