Seven Auckland flights become flights to nowhere as cyclone Gabrielle diverts international services

Singapore Airlines passengers spent nine hours on a flight to nowhere after SQ281 could not land in Auckland. Photo / Flightradar 24

Multiple services to Auckland turned into flights nowhere on Tuesday, after a decision to restart services was reversed by lingering high winds in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.

Seven flights bound for Auckland turned around, becoming “flights to nowhere”.

Among the 14 international services still flying on Tuesday afternoon, half were diverted to alternative airports with the remaining returned to their port of departure.

The LATAM service LA800 from Sydney to Santiago, Chile was due to stop off in Auckland at 16.30 but was prevented from landing.

A spokesperson for LATAM told the Herald it intended to operate the flight as normal, departing Sydney at 3.20pm intending to continue for Chile at 10.25pm.

After holding over Auckland, pilots made the decision to return to Sydney.

The South American Dreamliner service was forced to fly back to Australia, after it could not make its scheduled stop to pick up passengers and fuel.

Three Sydney services already en route to Auckland were forced to turn back, yesterday. Photo / Flightradar 24

Hot on its heels were two more flights to nowhere, Air New Zealand 104 and Qantas 145, which both returned to Sydney.

Air New Zealand’s NZ124 from Melbourne was also forced back and a later China Airways service from Brisbane, which spent three hours flying the loop.

Flights over the Pacific, including NZ945 from Rarotonga and FJ1413 Nadi were also forced back to their original airports. Despite making it only 200km off the coast, Fiji Airways’ A330 service was forced to hold position and burn off fuel for two hours before it could land back in Nadi.

Fiji Airways 1413 spent 2 hours circling over Nadi, to safely burn off fuel. Photo / Flightradar 24

Passengers aboard Singapore Airlines SQ281 to Auckland spent nine hours flying a loop back to Changi, deciding to return just short of Australia.

Other Air New Zealand services were able to divert to alternate New Zealand airports, including NZ6079 which flew on to Christchurch, arriving just before 9pm.

A later Honolulu flight, Hawaiian Airlines HA445, made the decision to divert to Sydney.

While many airlines had already suspended services or made diverts, at 6.45pm yesterday Auckland Airport made the decision to cancel all operations for safety reasons until this morning.

“We apologise to travellers for the disruption, particularly those that have already experienced significant travel challenges over the past couple of weeks,” said the airport’s chief customer officer, Scott Tasker.

“The weather just hasn’t been on our side, but the safety of staff and passengers come first as we manage through the impacts of this severe weather event.”

Air New Zealand, which had intended to have restart all flights by yesterday evening, including additional services to clear passenger backlogs, chose to ground its domestic jet services at 4pm.

Flights resumed today at shortly before 5am, although passengers are told to expect some ongoing disruption.

Tasker says that the airport welcomed LATAM’s Santiago to Sydney service LA801 this morning, after a difficult restart.

Overnight 55 passengers, stranded in the terminals overnight, were transported to a Civil Defence Centre at Trusts Arena and a suspension of baggage handling has led to a backlog in delayed luggage. There may be further disruption particularly to regional services affected by flooding.

“This will mean a busy few days for the teams operating in both the international and domestic terminals. To help airline staff work through the backlog of travellers, we ask only those that have a confirmed flight come to the airport.”

Passengers should check with their airline before heading to the airport.

Passenger recovery effort underway says Air NZ, Qantas

As the carrier most disrupted by the cyclone, Air New Zealand says that 821 cancelled flights and almost 49,000 passengers who have been affected by Gabrielle.

“We’ve again turned our focus to rebooking disrupted customers, with a focus on our 6,500 international customers impacted from yesterday’s cancellations. We’re looking at where the areas of greatest need are and will be adding services and changing to larger aircraft where possible,” says the airline’s chief of customer Leanne Geraghty.

“This may take some time, so we once again ask customers for their patience while we work through this.”

Qantas has already upweighted today’s Sydney to Auckland service by flying a A380 superjumbo, instead of the scheduled 737. This will add a couple hundred extra seats to QF143 and QF146, to help clear a backlog of passengers.

Air New Zealand says it will operate extra services to Nadi, Tahiti, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Apia as well as putting on additional flights from Christchurch to pick up diverted travellers.

Extra flights to North America are also “being explored”, said the airline.