Air New Zealand

From paper-era procedures to a live, audit-ready compliance model

Modernising compliance with OneReg

Air New Zealand’s Engineering division moved from static, document‑centric processes to a live, governed compliance environment with OneReg. The  go‑live marked a major milestone for OneReg’s expansion from airports into the airline sector, validating the platform at national‑carrier scale.

By empowering 100% of engineers as editors, the airline’s subject‑matter experts (SMEs) can now propose and draft procedure updates directly, while reviewers and approvers maintain control. The shift has collapsed change queues, improved traceability, and replaced intermittent “compliance matrix” exercises with continuous rule‑to‑procedure linkage, reducing audit prep from a months‑long hunt to a live view. It also digitises what was once paper‑heavy, so compliance requirements can be completed in a fraction of the time.

Compliance at national-carrier scale

Organisation
Air New Zealand - Engineering Division

Users Live
240

Industry
Airline

Use Cases
Engineering policy & procedures, change control, airworthiness documentation and control/scheduling of maintenance operations, regulatory mapping, dashboards, audit readiness

The challenge

With changing requirements and evolving operations, engineering teams needed to keep procedures aligned with current rules and on-the-ground reality. Large, infrequent “compliance‑matrix” pushes went stale almost as soon as documents changed. Biennial audits meant one to two months of locating various references. Updates to procedures averaged around six months because a small writer/doc‑control team acted as a gate, handoffs created queues, and search depended on knowing arcane document codes.

“It used to be hard to show how procedures linked to rules. Now the mapping lives with the content, so we stay audit‑ready instead of doing big refreshes that go stale”

Andrew Hewitt

General Manager Engineering

Choosing a platform built for airline operations

Air New Zealand’s Engineering division moved from static, document‑centric processes to a live, governed compliance environment with OneReg. The  go‑live marked a major milestone for OneReg’s expansion from airports into the airline sector, validating the platform at national‑carrier scale.

By empowering 100% of engineers as editors, the airline’s subject‑matter experts (SMEs) can now propose and draft procedure updates directly, while reviewers and approvers maintain control. The shift has collapsed change queues, improved traceability, and replaced intermittent “compliance matrix” exercises with continuous rule‑to‑procedure linkage, reducing audit prep from a months‑long hunt to a live view. It also digitises what was once paper‑heavy, so compliance requirements can be completed in a fraction of the time.

Compliance that stays live

Air New Zealand consolidated engineering policies, procedures, airworthiness materials, and maintenance control workflows into OneReg’s governed workspace. The design centres on subject‑matter experts initiating change, while reviewers and approvers preserve quality and compliance. Regulatory mapping connects rules directly to operational content so assurance is continuous rather than reconstructed at audit time.

  • Governed workspace
    Versioned documents with role-based permissions and full audits trails by default
  • Regulatory linkage
    Rules > policies > procedure > evidence, all kept in sync for live compliance visibility
  • Dashboards & navigation
    Curated team “home pages” put current procedures and tasks up front, replacing code-based searches.
  • Security Poster
    Implementation aligned to Air New Zealand’s cyber security requirements; platform is AI-ready for analytics and automation.

From rollout to results

The rollout aligned platform capabilities with Engineering’s operating model, ensuring the new way of working reflected real‑world responsibilities and rhythms.

  • Operating model & permissions
    Defined roles for SMEs, reviewers, and approvers; set governance rules and change authority
  • Regulatory mapping build out
    Linked procedures to applicable rules and evidence; validated mappings with compliance leads
  • Onboarding and enablement
    Guided training for teams; created playbooks and exemplars, embedded team dashboards
  • Maintenance integration
    Brought airworthiness responsibilities and maintenance scheduling into governed workflows to prepare for scale-up
From 180 days for document change management, to less than 24 hours

From bottleneck to SME-led flow

The editing bottleneck gave way to SME‑led flow. Cycle times shortened, confidence rose, and audits now start from a live view of rule‑to‑procedure linkage rather than a last‑minute scramble. Digitising paper‑heavy steps means compliance work completes dramatically faster while maintaining control. Traceability is built in: every change has a rationale, a reviewer, and an approver.


Highlights

  • Continuous audit readiness with live linkage between rules and procedures
  • Faster updates by moving from a queuebased model to SME-led change
  • Higher adoption via dashboards and governed, current content
“It used to be hard to show how procedures linked to rules. Now the mapping lives with the content, so we stay audit‑ready instead of doing big refreshes that go stale”

Andrew Hewitt

General Manager Engineering

What’s next?

Following the successful implementation by Engineering, the Maintenance division (1,800 users) adopted the same SME‑led governance model, extending live regulatory linkage across more fleets and procedures. The team has deepened analytics to understand cycle times and change hot‑spots, expand evidence types, and connect more upstream risk controls - building a broader, data‑informed assurance model.

Platform capabilities used:

  • Versioned change control with reviewer/approver workflows
  • Regulatory mapping
  • Team dashboards and targeted navigation
  • Full audit trails and rationale capture
  • Role-based permissions with 100% editor mode

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