From Airways to Air NZ CIO

In a reversal of the career jump which put a former CIO in overall charge of Air New Zealand, the chief executive of Airways New Zealand is to become the airline's CIO.

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In a reversal of the career jump which put a former CIO in overall charge of Air New Zealand, the chief executive of Airways New Zealand is to become the airline's CIO.

Craig Sinclair (pictured right), who has been Airways NZ's CEO since 1996, takes up the Air New Zealand CIO reins on September 9. He replaces Andrew David, who became Air New Zealand's head of group strategy and planning in June. Their boss, Ralph Norris, is a former ASB Bank CIO who was elevated to the managing director job.

Air New Zealand, which has more than 14,000 user seats, is embarking on a major IT overhaul, ranging from human resources and procurement systems to a new reservation system. It is already beginning to use thin-client technology and looking at extending that to other areas. The airline also plans to expand customer access to systems and the use of online booking.

Sinclair has been the head of Airways Corporation, the state-owned enterprise responsible for managing all domestic and international air traffic in New Zealand and parts of the Pacific, for seven years. Before that he was the corporation’s deputy chief executive. Before joining Airways in 1989 he held legal and management positions with Databank, dealing with hardware and software acquisitions and the deregulation of the banking industry.