Who is Air NZ’s incoming CEO?
Wednesday, 30 July 2025
Air New Zealand’s next chief executive has already been working to bring the company into the future.
Its chief digital officer, Nikhil Ravishankar, will replace Greg Foran as CEO on October 20.
In the nearly five years that Ravishankar has been at Air NZ, he has led major advances in the airline’s technology, loyalty programme and customer proposition.
He said he was thrilled and humbled to lead Air NZ and to help shape its next stage.
“This airline is an institution with a deep legacy but also a fantastic future. It’s a privilege to step into the CEO role and take on that responsibility for our people, our customers, and our country.”
He became Air NZ’s chief digital officer in September 2021, after having the same job title at Vector since 2017. Before that he was managing director at Accenture and head of technology strategy at Spark.
Outside of Air NZ, Ravishankar is an advisory board member of the University of Auckland’s Centre of Digital Enterprise and has also been on the advisory board of New Zealand Asian Leaders, a member of the AUT AUTEUR Influencer Network, and an advisory committee member of The Blues Foundation.
What has Ravishankar done at Air NZ so far?
Ravishankar has been behind many of the recent technological advancements at the airline, including rolling out iPads to cabin crew to discover things such as 72% of the blue cheese handed out in flight never gets eaten, to deployment to the company’s hangars to speed aircraft maintenance, reported Reseller News.
He told IT publication CIO last year that Air NZ’s ambition was to be the world’s leading digital airline.
“The way we’ve looked to attack that is by saying if we want to become that, then we need to stop thinking of ourselves as an airline with a fantastic digital department, and as a digital business that happens to be an airline.”
He said it was “not just technology, but the experiences we deliver for our customers, the new business models we can put in place, the way we govern the organisation, the way we deliver change and everything in between”.
Among the advancements customers would recognise were the Air NZ app that was rolled out in November 2022 and a new baggage tracker that became active in the app in May 2023.
This year, Starlink WiFi is being trialled on two domestic jets and an ATR turboprop on regional routes. The latter is a global first.
“Being the first airline in the world to trial Wi-Fi on a turboprop aircraft is a proud moment for us. Our goal is to explore the potential of this technology and understand how it can enhance customer journeys,” Ravishankar said.
On international flights, the in-flight entertainment screens in the retrofitted Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners have been upgraded to be the largest equal in the world. The system has also been programmed to have different applications added, based on customers’ experiences.
Last week, the airline announced it was working with the organisation behind artificial intelligence software ChatGPT to help avoid flight delays, in a first-of-its-kind collaboration in New Zealand.
Ravishankar said the collaboration marks a major milestone in the airline's digital journey.
'We see AI as an opportunity for our team at Air New Zealand and a way to improve experiences for our customers. It helps us solve problems faster, serve our customers better, and reimagine how work gets done. By working directly with OpenAI, we not only access leading-edge technology but we also shape how it's used in the real world.
'This collaboration represents more than just access to new tools – it's a commitment to staying at the forefront of innovation and giving our people the best technology to thrive. We're excited to see how AI will transform the way we work.'
What challenges are ahead of him?
Ravishankar will have to deal with the airline’s delayed plane deliveries, several jets being grounded and Qantas muscling in on routes.
The airline has had aircraft on order from Boeing since 2019. Foran told Stuff Travel in December that he thought the earliest they would arrive was the beginning of 2026.
When they do eventually arrive, by 2027, Air NZ still won’t have the same number of long-haul jets it had in 2019.
Air NZ said for the second half of the financial year (ending June 30, 2025), it estimated it would have up to 11 jet aircraft grounded at times, and there was a large degree of uncertainty about engine maintenance timeframes.
The airline is still facing the industry-wide problems with Pratt and Whitney and Rolls Royce engines.
As a result, Air NZ expected performance for the second half of the 2025 financial year to be significantly lower than the first half.