Several flights from Auckland cancelled, travelers ‘in limbo’ amid holiday havoc
Joseph Johnson / Stuff
Other flights are canceled across New Zealand due to severe weather conditions. (File photo)
The ravages of school holiday travel continue, with another 10 flights to and from Auckland Airport canceled at 8am on Wednesday.
Six arrivals and four departures have been canceled on the Auckland national board.
The affected flights on Wednesday were to and from Napier, Nelson, Rotorua, the Bay of Islands, Blenheim, Whitianga and Wellington.
Flight cancellations spiked during the July school holidays after airlines were hit by bad weather and staff illness.
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Australian holidaymaker Vincent Vandevusse, 59, was on his way to Queenstown with his son last week when his flight was delayed overnight and then cancelled.
He tried the call center and faced two hour wait times.
“I’ve traveled to third world countries, and I’ve never had this situation before where you’re just left in limbo.
“Each time we tried to get help. It came to an impasse,” he said.
RICKY WILSON/Stuff
As of 8am on Wednesday, 10 flights to and from Auckland Airport had already been cancelled.
Air New Zealand put them up in a hotel after the flight was postponed and provided them with taxi tickets. But when it was canceled the next day, Vandevusse and his son were left in the dark, he said.
“We went to a backpacker for the night. Eventually my partner in Hobart tried many phone lines and booked us a flight for Saturday.
Vandevusse would like to see more information provided to travelers when flights are cancelled.
“The text message was shocking. It just linked to a phone number you can’t reach and an app that says the flight is cancelled. We had no way out,” he said. declared.
Vandevusse has requested a refund from Air NZ but has yet to receive a response.
Air NZ was unable to comment by the deadline.
John Selkirk
Flight cancellations spiked during the July school holidays after airlines were hit by bad weather and staff illness. (originally published in 2012).
Vandevusse is not the only traveler with this story.
Dozens of readers wrote to Things over the past week, frustrated with cancellations and long call center wait times.
‘We were heading to Wellington for our 20th wedding anniversary – tickets booked from Auckland to Wellington. I frantically tried to rebook when it was cancelled,” one person said.
“Everyone was scrambling. We ended up paying three times the amount to get there.
Air New Zealand chief customer officer Leanne Geraghty previously said bad weather and crew illness were partly to blame for the delays.
Those conditions, coupled with “the busiest travel period” seen since pre-Covid, created the perfect storm for the airline, she said.
met service
The MetService has severe weather watches and warnings in place for Tuesday afternoon.
The latest cancellations follow extreme weather conditions on the South Island earlier this week, causing power outages amid gusts of up to 190km/h.
On Tuesday, an Air NZ spokesperson confirmed the airline’s canceled flights were due to severe weather.