200 flights cancelled, 22,000 Air NZ passengers delayed

Wellington Airport was closed on Thursday by severe wind impacting 22,000 travellers. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Two-hundred flights, both international and domestic, flying into and out of Wellington Airport were cancelled yesterday due to severe wind, upending the travel plans of 22,000 people.

Air New Zealand head of airports Kate Boyer told

Nine to Noon's

Kathryn Ryan the airline cancelled 157 of those 200 flights and upwards of 22,000 Air NZ customers were affected.

"It was an extremely challenging day for us yesterday with Wellington closed throughout the day.

"...so a really high scale of disruption and we know how challenging that is for our customers and the stress and concern that that puts on them so we are working as quickly as we can to recover the network and make sure people can get where they need to go."

The major domestic and international hub was closed yesterday after MetService issued a Red wind warning, with winds gusting up to 130km/h - the strongest in a decade in the capital.

She said the winds had dropped to about 90km/h but despite the airport reopening on Friday, two flights had been disrupted this morning including one that was diverted back to Christchurch and one from Dunedin that was diverted to Palmerston North.

Boyer said pilots would not land if they deemed it unsafe.

She said Air NZ had completed rebooking its international customers and was assisting domestic customers as it could, noting that they could "self-serve" by rebooking themselves using the Air NZ app.

The airline had been able to put on one extra flight this afternoon to Wellington she said to help alleviate some of the backlog.

Boyer said it was hard to know how long it would take to clear that backlog.

"We'll be working throughout the next couple of days to get customers home or on to their next destination."

She said the airline was not able to help with accommodation, however it was trying to provide customers with guidance and help with rebooking so that costs did not impact them.

Wellington Airport head of operations Matthew Palliser told

Nine to Noon

the airport was "in recovery mode at the moment".

"We're keen to get people to where they need to go."

He said he airport hotel was at capacity on Thursday night and some travellers were stranded inside the airport terminal but "we kept the heating on and looked after them overnight".

Palliser said it was "highly unusual" to have to cancel the flights for an entire day and it had made for a very quiet day at the airport.

"We do have periods sometimes where we might have a couple of flights where we have to divert due to winds in a certain time period but to have the whole day like that was definitely an exceptional circumstance."

Palliser said the majority of flights were now operating on schedule and he was optimistic about the rest of the day with the wind having decreased throughout the night.

"We've been pretty lucky. I think most passengers understand these things are out of our control."

Also helping to alleviate what had been a stressful situation was the extra resource the airport and airlines had put on to cope with the weather event.

The airport infrastructure had not been affected, he said.

Palliser's advice to travellers was to get to the airport earlier than usual.

"If passengers can make sure they are communicating and checking with their airlines that flights are on time, and make sure you come to the airport nice and early as there will be high volumes of people coming through," said Palliser.

Some passengers travelling in and out of Wellington continued to face a second day of disruptions.

Lia Mapa was heading to a Barbershop competition in Christchurch but the next flight is Friday night. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

Leah Mapa and a group of women she was travelling with had their flights to Christchurch cancelled.

They were hoping to make it tonight for the national barbershop competition.

She said there was a feeling of disappointment among the group because they felt as if they were letting their team down.

Mapa said there was not a lot they could do and that the next flight wasn't until 5pm tomorrow, but by then the competition would be over.

Also hoping to make it to Gisborne on Friday was Margaret-Ann Barnett and her entire family, to visit her daughter.

They've rescheduled four times and were hoping to make it today, she told RNZ.

Barnett said having to re-book multiple times was incredibly expensive and she had so far forked out almost $1000 for the trip.

She said she was not confident they were going to make it today either.