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Cyclone Gabrielle: Thousands more international passengers delayed

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Air New Zealand is adding extra flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to recover passengers stranded in Australia by sudden cancellations caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.

That major setback saw the total number of cancelled Air New Zealand flights rise to 821, leaving 49,000 impacted customers since the cyclone hit.

Passengers wait in the Air New Zealand lounge at Auckland International Airport
Passengers wait at Auckland Airport as the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle caused major disruption to flights in and out of New Zealand. (AP / Mark Baker)

Air New Zealand’s Leanne Geraghty told 9news.com.au in a statement that “we’re largely back in the swing of things today”.

Rebooking flights and clearing passenger backlogs is now the focus, she said.

“We got halfway there yesterday with our restart but, as we have throughout the recent weather events, we put safety first,” she said.

With Auckland international and domestic airports out of action on Tuesday, nine flights had been diverted to other airports like Christchurch and Nadi, she said.

Geraghty said 6500 international passengers were affected by yesterday’s cancellations.

This photo, posted to Facebook by New Zealand Equestrian Scene, showed a horse stranded on the roof of a building at Hawke's Bay, New Zealand, during flooding caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.

Horse stranded on shed roof in New Zealand amid floods

Extra services to Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Nadi, Tahiti and Apia were now being scheduled, she said, and larger aircraft were an option to recover delays.

Extra flights to the US are also being explored. 

Domestically, flights resumed to all airports today including New Plymouth, Napier and Gisborne, which all serve regions hard hit by the cyclone. 

”To have the airline operating largely as normal today is no small feat,” Geraghty said.

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