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.
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.
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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.
