Air NZ 'sorry' for alien Niue images

Niue is known as 'the rock' because of its cliffs.

Air New Zealand has apologised for a website Niue on Sale ad page in July that featured an image of palm trees and verdant green islands.

The company said in response to a complaint from a viewer that an employee stand-in had loaded the wrong page.

The viewer called the ad misleading, noting that Niue, known as "the rock" because of the way its cliffs rear out of the sea to a height of 120m, has no islands.

The viewer complained to the Advertising Standards Authority's complaints board.

The airline said sorry for any confusion and that the offending image had been updated.

But it did note images on the webpage "Air New Zealand Holidays - Flights, Hotel Bookings" were generic, not necessarily related to the selected destination.

"We believe anyone scanning through Air New Zealand Holidays hot-deal pages would realise the repetitive nature of the images meant they were intended to be representative ... rather than specific destinations."

The board commended the action taken by Air New Zealand but said the ad breached the rules. It said it agreed with the airline about generic images on the Air New Zealand Holidays page.

- NZPA