Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
More than 240 people have been killed when an Air India plane bound for London crashed moments after taking off from the city of Ahmedabad in India on Thursday (India time), authorities said.
It's the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade and the first loss of life in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The police say the sole survivor managed to jump out an emergency exit.
The back of Air India flight 171 is pictured at the site after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad on June 12, 2025. Photo: AFP / Sam Panthaky
Foran told Morning Report he had been in touch with the India Air's Kiwi chief executive Campbell Wilson and offered Air New Zealand's support.
He had also contacted Singapore Airlines which has a shareholding in Air India.
He expressed his condolences to colleagues in India dealing with the tragedy.
"It reverberates, we're all impacted, it's passengers, it's all the staff who were involved. We've been working on it in the evening and offering whatever support we can."
Foran, who has just returned from several days in New Delhi, said he was up-to-date with what was happening in how the aviation industry was being developed in India.
Both its major airlines, Air India and Indigo, had major expansion plans with a lot of airports being built and planes on order.
"It's a burgeoning industry and it's really well run."
The plane that crashed was a Dreamliner-8 while Air New Zealand had the slightly bigger Dreamliner-9.
Air New Zealand got its first order of Dreamliners in 2014, more in 2017 and was awaiting delivery of another eight.
"We've had a great run with that particular aircraft."
The current ones had Trent Rolls-Royce engines while the new ones would have General Electric Gen-X engines, similar to that on the Air India plane.
It was too early to speculate on whether it was an engine issue that caused the crash, Foran said.
A massive "ecosystem" would be responding to what has happened in order to try and find out what has gone wrong with various regulators and companies involved.
"Until people get a bit further into the investigation you don't want to speculate but I am very comfortable that the quality of what we are flying today and will fly tomorrow is at the standard required."
However, if the regulators came back with new directives they would be incorporated into its operation.
"Air New Zealand remains a very very safe airline," Foran said.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, asked about the plane crash in India as he was about to depart, said he wanted to express "tremendous sadness for what is an absolute tragedy".
"Obviously it's way too early to speculate as to what has caused it, I do plan to be communicating with [India's] Prime Minister Modi and sending our thoughts to him and his people in India as well."
He said he also knew Air India's chief executive Campbell Wilson, a New Zealander, and would be speaking to him too.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand High Commission in New Delhi said it was responding to the event and was in touch with local authorities.
It said it had no reason at this time to believe that any New Zealanders were on the flight.
