Flight disruptions: 'Chaos' at Auckland Airport as school holidays begin and staff are battered with Covid

School holiday travel is off to a rocky start, with flights across the country facing delays and cancellations including for one passenger who finally boarded a plane after two previous flights were grounded over the weekend.

It was third time lucky for Chris this morning, finally boarding his flight from Auckland to Wellington.

"It took off spot on time, however I was supposed to fly on Saturday but that got cancelled by Air New Zealand and then my Sunday flight got cancelled," he said.

Chris said queues at the domestic check-in desks were chaotic and that the staff looked "stressed".

These flight disruptions and delays come as school holidays begin.

"The queues were pretty horrendous... There were quite a few disgruntled-looking passengers and lots of children," he said.

Chaotic scenes at Auckland Airport as crowds of people check-in for flights as school holidays begin. Photo / Supplied

Chris said his weekend flights had been cancelled due to Covid reasons and was told there was not enough staff to make up flight crews.

At the time of publishing, six domestic Air New Zealand flights departing Auckland and five coming in have been cancelled according to the airport's website.

Eight international flights arriving into the airport are also listed as delayed.

Four domestic Jetstar flights departing Auckland were listed as cancelled but a spokesperson from the airline said these flights were incorrectly displayed.

"These flight numbers are scheduled to operate on other days of the week," they said.

"We've had no disruptions to flights today in New Zealand."

Last week, Air New Zealand advised passengers of "potential disrupts and flight changes" due to sickness and inbound weather at peak travel time.

Airline CEO Greg Foran was quick to tell passengers there could be disruption to holiday plans.

"Much like other businesses around New Zealand, we're experiencing higher-than-usual employee sickness. This, coupled with tumultuous weather, is likely to cause some disruptions across the network over the coming days," said Foran.

Crowds of people queue to check-in at Auckland Airport this morning. Photo / Supplied

While there have been long queues in Auckland, RNZ reported that operations have been running more smoothly at Wellington and Christchurch airports.

Christchurch Airport's chief aeronautical and commercial officer Justin Watson said there had been a few cancellations, caused by weather, engineering issues and "the long tail of Covid-19", which was affecting crews and pilots.

So far two flights from 80 flying in or out of Christchurch Airport today had been cancelled, which was not huge "but still disruptive".

Watson said once flights were cancelled, passengers might have to wait a day or so to get another seat because most flights were full.

"It's an unfortunate situation brought about by Covid and there's not a lot we can do about it when people are getting sick and having to isolate."

Air New Zealand is expecting 672,000 passengers to fly with them over the next fortnight.

Travellers flying with the airline are advised to check their "Travel Alerts" and airport schedules before heading to their flights.