Air New Zealand chief operating officer Alex Marren said due to significant wind shear conditions, NZ607 was not able to land in Queenstown this afternoon and returned to Wellington.
“Customers will be re-accommodated on the next available service.”
The diversion comes days after hundreds of Queenstown Marathon runners were left stranded when flights in and out of the town on Friday night were redirected, returned, or cancelled due to severe crosswind conditions.
Queenstown Airport’s website lists eight cancelled or diverted arrivals and seven cancelled departures from Friday night.
Most of these flights were from Air New Zealand, though two affected arrivals and two cancelled departures were with Jetstar.
An NZME reporter onboard an aborted flight described their plane turning around just before reaching Queenstown and returning to Auckland.
“We do apologise for this, but safety is paramount and we couldn’t land,” an air hostess said.
“We do care and we are especially sorry for those who are competing in the marathon.”
Annoyed passengers on board said they’d been training for six months.
Nathan Lee travelled from Taiwan to run the marathon with his parents.
His parents made an earlier flight to Queenstown, but Lee will miss the event he’s trained months for.
“They’re there right now, and I’m here trying to figure out what the hell our next move is going to be,” Lee said.
“If you fly here, and then you tell me that it’s suddenly aborted ... I did come off an 11-hour flight previously, so that was the light at the end of the tunnel.”
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