Southern China Airlines apologises for twice-delayed flight

Passengers, furious about the delays, yell at an airline staffer.

Southern China Airlines has apologised to passengers whose flight was delayed twice in as many days.

The flight to Guangzhou, China, was scheduled to depart on Sunday, then Monday but only left at 10am today.

Police had to be called after an angry group of passengers confronted airline staff over the delay.

Southern China Airlines' New Zealand marketing and commercial manager Blair Haeata offered the airline's apologies.

"We apologise for the inconvenience to all those passengers that were affected. There were some technical issues, I don't know in detail what those were and yes, they may not be serious, but safety's absolutely paramount to us.

"It's a busy time of year for people and we don't want to inconvenience anybody."Video posted by one of the passengers, Alex Lee, showed an angry group yelling at one of the airline's staffers.

Posting on the video, Lee wrote "A mob is activating..its unacceptable...2nd delay/cancellation in consecutive days".

Lee said the drama began when people arrived for a full flight scheduled to leave at 10am on Sunday. Eventually the passengers were told to come back the following day and given hotel rooms for the night.

The passengers returned to the airport yesterday morning for the rescheduled flight at 11am. But 11am came and went with no announcement while the passengers waited. That's when, as Lee called it, the mob "activated".

"I don't know if you've been to a Guangzhou dumpling restaurant, but if you have, you know the Chinese can get loud and rowdy," he said.

"Kids were agitated, their parents were stressed and tired and there had been no notice of delay. They all began yelling over each other, demanding information."