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International long-haul flights are landing at Auckland Airport today in spite of scores of others flights being cancelled as Cyclone Garbrielle hits.
While the airport’s arrivals and departures board shows a slew of cancellations, Qantas and Jetstar flights from Australia have landed as has a LATAM flight from Santiago and an Air NZ flight from San Francisco.
But Air NZ has cancelled all domestic flights through Auckland until midday Tuesday and all regional turboprop Q300 and ATR flights to, from or through Hamilton, Tauranga and Taupō also are cancelled for the same period.
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✈ Some important news for any travellers throughout New Zealand intending to fly in, out, or through Auckland airport today or tomorrow. ✈ pic.twitter.com/awqRyf1pnm
— National Emergency Management Agency (@NZcivildefence) February 12, 2023
The airline’s chief executive Greg Foran is at the airport this morning and said although operating conditions were ok now, with 20-knot winds, this could change.
Speaking on Newstalk ZB, he said the airline made cancellation decisions at the weekend based on the best information it has at the time.
While four long-haul services were due this morning, five others had been cancelled.
“And the reason that we can’t do them all if they do have to divert, you have to work out where you’re going to put them and work out how many hotel rooms you’re going to need. Then you’ve got to work out how you’re going to get those people back from wherever you’ve diverted them,” he said.
“It’s a measured approach and what we try and do here is thread a needle.”
It could take weeks to recover the schedule from flights that had to be diverted while non-stop domestic schedules take a day to restore.
“Sorting out Christchurch is literally a day, other ones if we don’t do anything are upwards of 15 to 20 days,” Foran told ZB.
Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran. Photo / File
Services were cancelled due to flooding just a fortnight ago through Auckland Airport – the airline’s main hub and the country’s main gateway.
He said he didn’t think the airport was especially vulnerable.
“I think what we saw two weeks ago was an extraordinary event. And I think they caught everyone by surprise but you know, I can tell you there’s been a lot of work done over the last two weeks in particular the last five days.”
The main problem today would be crosswinds and surface water on the runway, he said.
Pilots are worried about the lack of information about surface conditions at the runway, where an Air NZ hit landing lights in monsoon-like conditions on January 27.
The NZ Air Line Pilots Association said the airport does not have the ability to accurately measure the water depth on the runway surface.
“Given pilots are not provided with accurate runway contaminate measurements (at any airport in NZ currently), if rain is falling at the airfield and the runway is being reported as ‘wet’ then NZALPA suggest pilots carefully consider what assumptions they use to determine aircraft performance,” it has warned its members.
