I'm so glad I part own this airline

Air New Zealand isn't content with the number of people it has fired, and believes it could, and should fire more. Having outsourced their maintenance, they're now doing the same with the cleaning. They hope to save $1.5 million by getting someone else to employ the people who clean the planes.

The big question is how? Whoever gets the contract will have administration, overheads, and profit requirements, just like Air NZ. Where is this $1.5 million come from?

The pockets of the workers, of course. The new company will find ways to cut wages and conditions, to work faster, and they'll have to, otherwise Air NZ will swap the contract to another company who can do it cheaper.

Which is why sub-contracting needs to be resisted on principle, not just because we can't fix the Chinese to fix our planes (I'm looking at you Engineers Union).