Air New Zealand Set To Resume Flying Tomorrow After Cyclone Gabrielle Passes

• Auckland jet services will begin from mid-morning Tuesday
• Turboprop services will begin from mid-afternoon Tuesday
• 11 domestic flights have been added to the schedule to help with recovery efforts with more to come
• 10,000 international customers were disrupted, with 6,500 left to be rebooked
• Air New Zealand working to add capacity to bring disrupted international customers home as quickly as possible

Based on current weather predictions for Auckland Airport, Air New Zealand intends to resume domestic and international jet operations from mid-morning tomorrow, and turboprop operations from mid-afternoon.

Following the cancellation of 509 flights, the airline is now focusing its efforts on getting disrupted passengers back into the skies as quickly as possible.

Air New Zealand’s Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty says with 10,000 of its international customers impacted by the cyclone, every available effort is being made to rebook them.

“Rebooking is well under way with around 6,500 customers left to be rebooked as of this morning. Customers are currently being rebooked onto the next available service to give them certainty they have a flight booked.”

“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.”

“As we did during the Auckland flooding, we will be adding larger aircraft to routes, working with our star alliance partners, converting cargo flights to passenger flights and adding additional services where possible into the ports where we need them the most”.

The airline has added 11 domestic services into its schedule as well as changing six services to a larger aircraft, with more expected to be added over the coming days.

“We want to once again thank our customers for their patience while we work through the impact of another weather event that has meant a significant rebooking undertaking for the airline. Getting customers to their destination safely and as quickly as possible is our top priority”.

Air New Zealand’s service from New York will take off from Rarotonga tomorrow morning, also carrying customers who couldn’t leave in the Cook Islands due to Cyclone Gabrielle’s impact on the airline’s operations. Customers impacted by the cyclone related domestic cancellations who have not already made use of the flexibility policy will have their fares put into credit and are able to rebook on alternative services via the Air New Zealand website.

The airline will continue to monitor weather forecasts as the cyclone moves down the country and will update plans as required.

Customers who booked through a travel agent or third-party online agent should contact them directly about making changes to their bookings or credit validity.

The airline’s Travel Alerts page has the most up to date information on operating flights.

The airline is focused on managing these impacts for our customer and will not be able to provide specific flight details at this time.

Footage of the airline’s Turboprops being stored for the cyclone can be found here.

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