Cyclone Gabrielle: Air New Zealand to resume flights earlier than anticipated as storm passes

Air New Zealand planes stack up as Cyclone Gabrielle hits the North Island. Photo / Marty Melville

Air New Zealand says it is rebooking 10,000 international passengers affected by Cyclone Gabrielle as the worst of the storm is set to pass.

Auckland jet services will be back from mid-morning Tuesday, slightly earlier than anticipated. Domestic turboprop services will resume from mid-afternoon Tuesday.

After the cancellation of 509 flights, including disruption to its long-haul schedule, Air New Zealand says it predicts services will be safe to resume tomorrow

The airline says that it has added additional services to help clear the backlog of disrupted passengers and get travellers home.

There are still 6,500 passengers needing to be rebooked.

“Customers are currently being rebooked onto the next available service to give them certainty they have a flight booked,” says chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty.

Having learned the lessons from the January floods, the airline says it will be looking to add capacity on its aircraft to minimise disruption to passenger journeys.

There will be 11 domestic services added into its schedule tomorrow along with upweighting aircraft to carry extra seats.

Auckland Airport quiet as hundreds of flights cancelled

Meanwhile, Auckland Airport is open, but nearly 400 flights have been cancelled. Approximately 45,000 people have been affected by delays and cancellations.

“We’d normally expect hundreds of flights to arrive and take off to take off across a normal day at Auckland Airport so as you’d expect, it’s pretty quiet in the terminals,” said Auckland Airport Chief Customer Officer Scott Tasker.

“We’ve got more staff than passengers on deck right now and it does feel a bit like the early days of New Zealand’s COVID response.”

Of 104 international flights scheduled to arrive and depart Auckland Airport on Monday, February 13, 85 have been cancelled and all 301 domestic flights have been cancelled.

Tasker encouraged passengers whose flights had been impacted to contact airlines directly.

“If you have any issues with rescheduling disrupted flights, it’s always best to go directly to airlines through online channels or call centres rather than rebooking travel at the airport,’” he advised.

“Airline representation at the airport outside of check-in times can be limited with airline employees unable to make changes to flight bookings.”

NZ1 unscheduled stop in Rarotonga

Air New Zealand’s flagship New York route made a detour to the Cook Islands after pilots decided it was the safest course of action.

After arriving at around 7.30am, it is now due to continue to Auckland from Rarotonga tomorrow morning.

The ultra-long-haul flight, which when it flies light will be able to offer seats to passengers in Rarotonga, was disrupted by the cyclone.

“We want to once again thank our customers for their patience while we work through the impact of another weather event that has meant a significant rebooking undertaking for the airline,” Geraghty said.

The airline advises disrupted passengers to contact their travel booking agents or use Air New Zealand’s online tools to reschedule cancelled flights.

Updates will be shared via their Travel Alerts page to help.