Air New Zealand gives 3,500 staff ChatGPT and builds 1,500 custom GPTs
Air New Zealand began working directly with OpenAI in July 2025, giving all 3,500 corporate staff ChatGPT Enterprise, which it calls Companion AI. OpenAI says the airline has built more than 1,500 custom GPTs. Early areas named include maintenance and operations planning, but no operational system has been described.
The operating picture
Starting with the people at desks
ZK-NCJ Air New Zealand Boeing 767-319(ER)(WL) - cn 26915, ZK-OKG Air New Zealand Boeing 777-219(ER) - cn 29403 (11544174023). Photograph: Umedha Hettigoda / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped to fit). Illustrates the airline, not an AI deployment.
The OpenAI agreement, announced on 24 July 2025, puts ChatGPT Enterprise in the hands of Air New Zealand's corporate team. Implementation had already begun.
The airline named early areas for development: tools for customers to help themselves, integrated planning across maintenance and operations, and data to support operational decisions. It plans to use OpenAI's API to build new tools.
Selected implementations
The work behind the evidence
01 / Deployed
1,500 custom GPTs in the corporate team
The operational problem
Much office work at an airline is drafting and summarising, and each team's needs differ.
What the evidence reports
The airline said on 24 July 2025 that Companion AI, its version of ChatGPT Enterprise, covers all 3,500 corporate team members. Oliver Jay of OpenAI pointed to "how quickly they have built over 1,500 Custom GPTs". Chief digital officer Nikhil Ravishankar said: "We see AI as an opportunity for our team at Air New Zealand."
Operational significance
The number of custom GPTs shows staff building their own tools at scale. The operational areas the airline named would test whether that uptake reaches the flying programme.
Evidence still needed
No operational system, usage measure or result has been published, and the 1,500 figure comes from OpenAI.
A source can verify an announcement without verifying its projected outcome.
The wider register
Other tracked activity
Other records are shown separately, including non-AI technology and programmes at different stages of deployment. A register entry does not establish a measured AI benefit.
No other publicly listed records.
Editorial assessment
The documented AI is a broad staff tool, quickly taken up, with operational plans named but not yet described.
The next update should establish whether the maintenance and operations planning work has produced a system in use.
Live data from the Aerostack register. Status reflects published evidence only. See Our approach for how records are graded.
Aerostack register · 1 tracked deployment
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