Aviation View | Volume 1, Issue 3

245 AVIATION VIEW VOLUME 1, ISSUE 3 members time and allows them to focus on their own businesses. Important programs run through Aviation New Zealand include AIRCARE™, an integrated accreditation program that requires operators to apply the same robust risk management processes to environmental safety that they have adopted for flight safety, Down to the Wire, which encourages farmers to remove wire hazards for aerial top-dressers, and a just-launched Helicopter Safety Initiative, which addresses major issues in helicopter safety surrounding loss of control and performance management. Aviation NZ also provides a range of business advice and templates to members, provides a peer-to-peer business network so that individual companies can address problems, and provides members with access to support programs. These include N3, a wide-ranging procurement program, OFx, a foreign exchange program, and Manage, which helps with ACC premiums. This work requires that Aviation NZ communicates regularly with its members. We produce a weekly e-newsletter which is also circulated to government agencies, prospective members, and aviation influencers. It has 1576 subscribers. Divisions also produce e-newsletters AV I AT ION NEW ZEALAND for their members, and Aviation NZ produces a periodic member-only e-newsletter. The organization makes extensive use of social media, including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and runs webinars. Aviation NZ works closely with a number of other associations, from the broad Business New Zealand and NZ Chambers of Commerce to other aviation associations, including the Aviation Federation, NZ Airports Association, Airline Pilots Association and BARNZ. We also work with other sectoral groups where there are common interests (Groundspreaders Assn, Agcarm, NZ Agrichemical Education Trust, Federated Farmers, Road Transport Assn and Tourism Industry Aotearoa). These relationships are important in terms of developing common positions, accessing relevant technical competence, and sharing intelligence. COVID-19 hit the New Zealand aviation industry hard, just as it affected the industry globally. Aviation NZ’s initial response was to develop distinct priorities for action, including reducing costs for continued member viability, keeping members operating and making sure they were ready for recovery, and kickstarting the economy by identifying aviation projects and activities