A packed Air New Zealand flight stranded in Hong Kong has arrived in New Zealand 19 hours late.
Flight NZ80 was due to leave the city at 7.10pm local time on Saturday (12.10am Sunday NZT) but ended up taking off at 2.26pm local time yesterday (7.26pm NZT).
It got back to New Zealand just after 6am today.
An "engineering issue affecting one of the engines" caused the delay, which was made worse by a typhoon passing through.
One passenger aboard tweeted they had missed their domestic connecting flight today.
Anita Easton, from Wellington, was re-routed on a different plane through Melbourne. She returned to the capital about 6am today.
"I'm pretty tired. I've only slept three hours since Friday night."
She was back at work and was yet to hear from Air NZ about its offer of a cash payment "as a gesture of goodwill".
Many passengers had to spend the night at the airport terminal as only limited accommodation was available in the city.
One of the hundreds aboard was Tony Carter, Air NZ's board chairman and ex-Foodstuffs chief executive.
"I think there's probably some lessons to be learned. It's a very difficult situation. We're in the middle of a typhoon. It's a national holiday in Hong Kong. [Staff] have done their best," he said yesterday.
An Air NZ spokeswoman said yesterday poor weather conditions played a part in the delay and other flights from Hong Kong were also cancelled.
"Unfortunately around 80 customers remained in the terminal overnight and they have been provided with meal vouchers, blankets and pillows as well as water and snacks," she said.
"As with any offshore flight disruption where we have a limited number of people on the ground working to assist a large number of customers there are some challenges and the lack of available accommodation in Hong Kong has compounded an already challenging situation."
