Former Virgin Australia and New Zealand airline pilot Terry Hetherington is confident aviation will take off once we get a Covid-19 vaccine or learn to live with the virus. PHOTO: KERRIE WATERWORTH
Covid-19 has impacted all industries, all sectors and all aspects of our lives, but arguably the aviation and travel industries were hit first and hardest by the pandemic. On March 25, the same day New Zealand went to Alert Level 4 and closed its borders to all but returning Kiwis, Virgin Australia Airlines gave notice it was shutting its New Zealand wing, shedding 3000 jobs. Kerrie Waterworth spoke to former  Virgin Australia Airlines captain Terry Hetherington, of Wanaka, about the day his life abruptly changed course.

 

On the afternoon of Tuesday, March 3, Virgin Australia Airlines captain and pilot Terry Hetherington taxied a Boeing 737 aircraft to its designated gate at Auckland International Airport.

He had just flown to Melbourne and back, and it was his last day of work before going on annual leave.

Mr Hetherington had flown with the crew many times on previous occasions but as he stepped off the aircraft he had no idea it would be for the last time.

"I was due to fly to northern Italy on March 6 to go ski touring with my brother and a group of friends.

"We were monitoring the situation fairly closely and that night we actually decided not to go, even though Italy was not in lockdown and flights were still going on normally."

Covid-19 kept evolving and on Sunday, March 22, Mr Hetherington’s airline manager rang him to discuss future work options.

On Monday, March 23, a representative from the New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association contacted Mr Hetherington to say the union had agreed with the airline for all pilots to work 50/50 or part-time.

A typical day in the ‘‘office’’. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Two days later, Mr Hetherington was sitting down to lunch when he received an email from Virgin Australia informing him it was shutting down its New Zealand organisation completely — he would be made redundant effective from April 3.

"I was in shock, everyone was in shock. It is one of those things that takes a lot to process."

March 25 was also the day New Zealand went into Alert Level 4 lockdown.

"On the same day as the country was going into lockdown I lost my income and my career. That was how it felt because I am 52 years old and the opportunities going forward as you get older in aviation get harder over the age of 50.

"It wasn’t as if I could pop down the street, have a few beers with my mates and cry into my beer.

"We sat at home like all families did and worked through it step by step — what do we think, what are the outcomes, how are we going to manage?"

Mr Hetherington (right) and co-pilot Jeremy Ponsonby about to leave Sydney Airport for Nadi Airport, in Fiji, on Christmas morning in 2017. PHOTO: SUPPLIED

Until that day, Mr Hetherington had been living the dream.

Although he had always wanted a career in aviation, he had taken a circuitous route, training first as a chef at the Queenstown Hyatt Hotel before travelling around Europe and North America for six years working as a chef.

He met his New Zealand-born future wife Carin in Austria, and convinced her to return with him to Wanaka, where he had spent his summers while growing up in Dunedin.

From 1993 to 2000, Mr Hetherington worked as a member of the ski patrol at Treble Cone in winter, and became manager of the snow safety programme.

In summer he owned and operated a property maintenance business.

Mr Hetherington obtained his commercial pilot’s licence in 2000. His first aviation job was flying a Cesna to and from Milford Sound and throughout the lower South Island.

He moved to Brisbane to further his career, flying the Combi, a heavy passenger and freight turboprop aircraft, all over Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.