Over 9,000 Air New Zealand passengers have been stranded in various locations due to flight disruption caused by flooding in Auckland last week.
On 31 January, Air New Zealand tweeted: “Thank you for your patience as we focus on getting over 9,000 disrupted passengers back to the skies safely.”
On Wednesday the airline announced that it had rebooked 8,700 international customers, using alternative services and putting on more recovery flights from Japan and Samoa in order to bring displaced customers home.
The airline’s base, Auckland International Airport, was forced to close its terminals and reduce runway operations on 27 January because of widespread flooding.
Roads in and around the airport were also affected, and the airport advised passengers not to travel to the international terminal.
No domestic or international flights were able to arrive or depart the following morning, 28 January.
By Wednesday (1 February), Air New Zealand’s domestic flight schedule was back to normal, but international flights were still affected by ongoing repairs.
The airline said its full Auckland airport schedule should operate as normal from Thursday (2 February).
The airline posted to Twitter saying: “We’re also offering a goodwill gesture towards accommodation for displaced customers travelling internationally where we have not been able to provide accommodation and they have secured their own.”
Several frustrated passengers responded to the post, with one tweeting: “I understand that it has not been easy, but a little communication would have been helpful.”
“You’ve been such a let down since Friday - no communication, no staff on site to advise, a phone and message service completely under-equipped, all of this messaging now… way too little too late,” another added.
In a statement Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty called the situation an “unprecedented event.”
Ms Geraghty said: “We’ve pulled out all the stops to get our customers in the air. We’ve redirected cargo flights to pick up passengers, called in favours from our Alliance partners, used larger aircraft and adjusted our schedule wherever possible to make it happen. No stone has been left unturned.
“Our teams have worked tirelessly to enable further capacity to be added so we can get more people from Samoa and Japan, which are two ports that remain in high demand with limited options - these extra flights will be a relief to those needing to get home.”
“The airline is now in the process of contacting passengers in Japan and Samoa to make them aware of the extra flights and “asks customers to bear with us as the airline’s team works through the backlog.
“We’re continuing our work to rebook the remaining 300 customers. When this is done, we’ll be turning our focus to responding to the other outstanding queries we’ve received and supporting all our valued customers.”
