Air NZ borrows plane to rescue passengers

Air New Zealand says it is undertaking one of the biggest customer recoveries in the airline’s history as it tries to rebook customers stranded by closure of Auckland Airport in floods.

Almost 9000 customers were affected by the shutdown of New Zealand’s biggest international airport. With few spare seats to rebook passengers on, the airline has sought to upgauge aircraft or fly additional services to clear the backlog.

In Singapore where stranded passengers were told that there were few available seats until the end of February, the airline has worked with their partners Singapore Airlines to replace flight NZ283 with a A380 jumbo, adding 200 places for travellers.

Similarly an additional Air New Zealand service from Los Angeles to bring an additional 300 seats for passengers still in the US this week and NZ1 was making a stop over in Fiji to take on 100 extra passengers and additional fuel to return home.

There will be an additional service from Niue on Thursday to help stranded passengers.

Air New Zealand’s chief of customer and sales, Leanne Geraghty says the airline had rebooked 7800 passengers and was working to get the remaining travellers home.

“We also know there will be some customers whose rebooked flight is further out than they would have hoped. Our next phase of recovery is to work through our schedule and see how we can get them home on earlier services, where possible,” she said.

“We’re pulling all available levers to get customers on services as soon as possible. This includes working with alliance partners for them to use larger aircraft where possible and reworking our schedule to see where extra capacity can be added.”

The airline is keeping a close eye on weather patterns and working with Auckland Airport to plan for further disruption.

Passengers are warned that luggage may be delayed as the handling systems are still affected by the flooding.

A spokesperson for Air New Zealand said that they were working to rebook the remaining 1200 passengers, with additional flights being explored for passengers still in Japan and Fiji.

The airlines gesture of refunding accommodation expenses is still open to affected travellers. Passengers who have arranged their own accommodation should visit airnewzealand.co.nz/travel-alerts for details how to submit receipts for compensation of up to $250 per night.

Any passengers affected by the floods between 27 and 30 January, will have change fees or and fare differences waived on rebooked travel up to 28 February.