(Bloomberg) — Once hailed as the planet’s greatest retailer, Greg Foran could now make a reasonable claim to be the hardest working man in aviation.
It’s an unlikely switchup for an executive who led a turnaround of Walmart Inc.’s turgid US store network before the pandemic. Foran’s microscopic attention to detail — from bringing back toilet-seat covers for germophobic staff to picking out limp lettuces — was part of a famed leadership style that led Walmart Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon to term him the best retailer in the world.
Now gray and 63, and thousands of miles from a Walmart store, Foran is deep in the weeds again at the helm of Air New Zealand Ltd. Even as CEO, Foran reckons he’s personally checked in 20,000 passengers since joining the carrier in 2020.
But his extreme work ethic is no match for the unyielding realities of grounded jets and delayed plane deliveries. Air New Zealand has instead become a sorry case study of how broken supply lines are dogging aviation long after the pandemic. Profit has cratered again and the stock is languishing 70% below 2020 highs.
Air New Zealand has it tougher than its peers partly due to its geographic location. With a population of around 5.2 million, New Zealand’s domestic market is relatively small while its isolation means the majority of the carrier’s overseas routes are ultra-long haul, making jet fuel a significant expense. To neighboring Australia, its most-popular international destination, Qantas Airways Ltd. and its low-cost arm Jetstar, along with Virgin Australia provide stiff competition.
“We really haven’t had the opportunity to thrive,” Foran said in an interview at Air New Zealand’s headquarters in downtown Auckland. “We have to deal with headwinds that are not necessarily shared equally across the world.”
Supply-chain ruptures and engine maintenance delays have kept 16% of Air New Zealand’s jet fleet out of service in the second half, and the company doesn’t expect the situation to improve until early 2026.
At the same time, the Boeing Co. 787 Dreamliners on order have been repeatedly delayed due to the planemaker’s production woes. The first of eight new 787s, originally ordered for 2022, is now due at Air New Zealand in 2026. At home, the airline is contending with a sluggish economy that’s weighing on demand.
“They seem to be a victim of a number of things outside of their control,” said Grant Lowe, an analyst at Jarden Securities Ltd. in Auckland.
Yet investors aren’t cutting Foran any slack. Air New Zealand’s stock is wallowing at NZ$0.56 cents, far below the NZ$2 it fetched before Covid. In neighboring Australia, Qantas shares are up 68% this year, more than recapturing Covid-era losses. The Bloomberg World Airlines Index has climbed 26% in 2024. The index’s best performer, United Airlines Holdings Inc., has surged 133%.
For now, Foran appears to be playing the long game, projecting confidence that the changes he’s making will pay dividends once planemakers’ supply chain woes abate and jets start coming off production lines at a more rapid click.
“When these headwinds abate, which they will, the organization will soar,” he said.
Meanwhile, he’s trying to change what he can about Air New Zealand with the belief that intensity at the margins can make all the difference.
At Walmart, Foran would prowl the big box store aisles each week, checking on the quality of leafy greens or growling about excessive variants of Ritz Crackers. He was so deep in the details that he could talk to investors about the profit margin on a $1.68 women’s camisole — and its eight color options.
“What’s the 20% that really makes a difference? I will go incredibly deep on that aspect and that will mean getting out on the front line,” he said.
Foran knows how many vegetarian meals might be required on an Auckland-to-Singapore flight. A screen in his office shows him customer call wait times, the number of planes that are out of service, and if a flight leaves late. Whenever he flies, he serves drinks and snacks to customers.
Not long after he became CEO, he passed down a coffee to a passenger on a 6:30 a.m. domestic flight from Auckland to Christchurch and offered the person the choice of a cookie or corn chips. The unimpressed passenger looked at Foran, shaking their head. ‘“Corn chips at quarter to seven in the morning?”’
Later, Foran ordered a menu revamp.
But attention to minutiae may not guarantee success on one of Foran’s highest-profile bets yet: the Boeing Dreamliners the airline is waiting for will have the world’s first in-air bunk beds.
Skynest, as the airline calls its six-bunk pod, will allow passengers in economy to book a bed for four hours. The planes will operate ultra-long-haul services to destinations such as New York. Air New Zealand says Skynest is a game changer and will help it stand out among the big North American carriers.
But it also risks becoming an expensive waste of valuable real estate in the cabin if the bunks lie empty. Each four-hour booking slot will cost between NZ$400 ($230) and NZ$600, the airline has said, and the bunks, on top of the cost of an economy ticket, can be booked only once per person per flight. A one-way economy fare on the carrier from Auckland to New York costs around NZ$1,200.
Foran’s NZ$4.2 million remuneration last year is a far cry from the $20 million he earned in his best year at Walmart, though the pay cut doesn’t appear to have had an impact on his level of effort.
When he left Walmart in early 2020, he recorded a video in which he spoke longingly of returning to New Zealand, the country he’d left behind. He talked of catching up on missed glasses of chardonnay and days on the water fishing and boating.
Instead, he’s still up before 4 a.m. everyday for some stretching and stair runs, and often has a dozen meetings a day. He was due to spend the next weekend after this interview learning to fix aircraft essentials like galley water heaters with the carrier’s engineers.
“Fundamentally, I like working,” he said.
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