More than 60 flights disrupted by technical issue at Wellington Airport

Wellington International Airport. Photo / Mark Mitchell

A technical failure at Wellington Airport has delayed or cancelled 63 regional flights in and out of the city.

The fault is impacting the instrument landing system, which guides planes. A statement from Airways, which manages the equipment, revealed to the Herald that one of the antennae used in the system need to be replaced.

Although the antennae has been replaced, it needs a flight calibration test which cannot be completed until weather in the capital improves.

"Once the test calibration flight has been completed full service will resume. The test calibration is however weather dependent. Flights into Wellington Airport are affected while we work to resolve this issue."

Jet flights can continue as normal but smaller regional flights have suffered significant disruption.

It comes as the capital is being drenched by significant rainfall.

The Wellington region, still saturated from heavy rain last week, is getting wet again as periods of intense rainfall strike from Feilding to the city centre.

MetService meteorologist Curtis Hayes said some areas, like Feilding, have been inundated with rain causing flooding.

"Quite a lot happened in a short period of time – there were heavy falls, thunderstorm activity in the area. In two hours 35mm of rain fell, and from yesterday afternoon to now there's been about 60mm – which has caused the flooding."

Hayes says it's not over yet – persistent rain will fall across the region through today and into tomorrow – although Wednesday may have some dry spells.