Travellers are stuck in airports all over the world as the ripple effect of Cyclone Gabrielle spreads
Carlos Masino and his wife, Carolina, touched down in Auckland after a flight from Argentina on Monday morning only to find their connecting flight to Christchurch had been cancelled.
The couple are among thousands of travellers affected by flight cancellations in and out of Auckland International Airport on Monday.
“So we’re now looking for a hotel,” he said. “We got a new flight arranged for 12pm on Tuesday, so we will be back tomorrow.”
Sydney resident Jaye Lee Snowden said she was expecting to fly out of Auckland International Airport at 12.45pm on Monday only to find out that it had been cancelled because of Cyclone Gabrielle.
She came over for the Indigenous All Stars rugby league game in Rotorua on the weekend with her son Braxton Stoker.
“We only found out this morning that it had been cancelled when we got here,” Snowden said.
“We only flew over for three days, but now we’re stuck here,” she said. “I already had connecting flights arranged in Australia for today.”
But Snowden was philosophical about her last minute change of plans.
“It’s just mother nature,” she said.
Tony McKenna travelled to Japan to go skiing and was planning to return to New Zealand this week.
“Our plans were disrupted by the floods in Auckland delaying our departure by four days and now with Cyclone Gabrielle our flight home has been cancelled so we are now stuck in Tokyo.”
“We completely understand that no airline can anticipate these two events, but the lack of communication and options for us by Air New Zealand has been appalling.”
He said he had received notification of the cancelled flights by text and on the airline’s app, but the group wasn’t called, or given options on how they could get home.
According to Air New Zealand up to 10,000 international travellers have been affected by its flight cancellations as a result of Cyclone Gabrielle.
The airline’s chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said it was now making every available effort to rebook the flights for those who have been affected.
“Rebooking is well under way with around 6,500 customers left to be rebooked as of this morning,” she said.
“Because flights are very full, some customers may receive a notification saying they won’t depart for up to 20 days after their original booking. We want to assure those customers we now have teams working to get them on an earlier flight – it’s our top priority.”
According to Air New Zealand it has also added additional domestic flights to its schedule, with more expected to be added over the coming days.
Auckland Airport has been approached for comment.
