Air New Zealand has made two appointments to its executive team. Alexandria (Alex) Marren is expected to join the airline in late March as Chief Operating Officer, following a 36-year career in senior operations, customer, cabin crew and airport leadership roles at United Airlines and Hertz Corporation. Alex is currently the President of ABM Aviation in Atlanta, USA, where she has been leading a team of over 11,000 to help airlines at airports across the US, UK, Ireland and the Middle East navigate through the Covid pandemic.

Alex's extensive operations experience has ranged from responsibility for ground operations at 46 airports with oversight of 3500 flights per day to 260 cities, to leadership of 23,000 staff at Hertz's North American rental car operation. Alex replaces Air New Zealand's current COO Carrie Hurihanganui, who will take on the Chief Executive role at Auckland International Airport Limited in February. From 1 February 2022, Mike Williams will take on the new role of Chief Transformation and Alliances Officer, which will lead delivery of the airline's strategy and be responsible for its alliance partner relationships.

Mike has been with Air New Zealand since 2016 in senior commercial and strategy roles and is currently Group General Manager Commercial, Alliances and Strategy. Before joining the airline, Mike worked with the Boston Consulting Group in Australia, Finland and the US working with clients in the aviation, technology and retail sectors. He holds a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering and a Bachelor of Business Management from RMIT University, Melbourne.

Prior to Alex's arrival, the responsibilities of the Chief Operating Officer will be undertaken by members of the executive team.