Air New Zealand’s Engineering division implemented OneReg’s aviation regulatory assurance platform in 2025 in response to a need to keep engineering teams aligned with current New Zealand Civil Aviation rules and regulations, as well as on-the-ground reality in an environment of rapidly changing requirements and evolving operations.
The goal was to maintain traceability between regulatory requirements and the documents providing compliance. The existing challenge was that traceability went stale as soon as documents changed, leaving teams to spend one to two months finding references for biennial audits. Updates to policies and procedures averaged around six months because a small centralised tech-writing team acted as a bottleneck, with multiple handoffs creating additional friction and delays.
Air New Zealand needed a solution that was built for modern airline operations and could allow engineers - the subject matter experts (SMEs) - to draft updates to policies and procedures directly, while reviewers and approvers could keep governance tight to preserve quality and compliance. The organisation wanted regulatory mapping to digitally link rules and regulations directly to policies, procedures, and operational evidence in real-time so regulatory assurance would be continuous rather than reconstructed at audit time.
Post implementation, for the first time, the Air New Zealand Engineering team can now propose changes to documentation quickly and at any time, delivering tighter control with far less effort and enabling rapid updates without compromising safety or compliance. The SMEs can now draft the procedures they actually use.
This has reduced the average timeframe for document change management from 180 days to less than 24 hours.
The deployment of OneReg modernised and digitised how the Air New Zealand Engineering team manages the policies, processes, and procedures integral to maintaining airworthiness and regulatory compliance, and was designed to make compliance faster and more accessible for employees at all levels. The Air New Zealand Engineering team is now using the OneReg platform to oversee critical functions such as the scheduling and control of maintenance operations.
Following the successful implementation by Engineering, Air New Zealand’s Maintenance division has recently adopted the same SME‑led governance model, extending live regulatory linkage across more fleets and procedures. The team has deepened analytics to understand document amendment cycle times and change request hot‑spots, expand evidence types, and connect more upstream risk controls - building a broader, data‑informed assurance model.
"At Air New Zealand, we are committed to the highest standards of safety and compliance while continuously seeking innovative ways to enhance our operations. By digitising what was once a paper-heavy process, we can complete compliance requirements in a fraction of the time. It is a major step forward, giving thousands of our people the ability to manage compliance and operational documentation with far greater speed, safety, and efficiency," says Andrew Hewitt, General Manager Engineering at Air New Zealand. "In a team responsible for keeping aircraft safe and reliable, that kind of agility is not just helpful – it is essential."
Author: Wayne Thomas
Chief Operating Officer, One Reg
*Find out more about OneRegs engagement in the IATA's Strategic Partnerships Program on the partners directory.
