A resolution to the dispute that led to Air New Zealand threatening to cancel some regional services is a case of common sense prevailing, Prime Minister John Key says.
Airways New Zealand and the New Zealand Airline Pilots Association (NZALPA), which represents the controllers, reached an agreement late last night to ensure regional air traffic control towers would not need to be closed during set rest break times.
Earlier the airline's group general manager of short haul airlines, Bruce Parton, said the problem came down to "inflexibility" of air traffic controllers represented by NZALPA.
Under changes to the Employment Relations Act, NZALPA was insisting members took breaks at scheduled times rather than being flexible and taking arrivals and departures into account.
The dispute prompted Mr Key to say the Government would change the law if it wasn't settled in a "common sense way".
However, he said advice from the Department of Labour was that the law was flexible enough and allowed for the parties to resolve this issue.
He said today he was "glad that common sense prevailed" and the parties had managed to sort through the issues, but comments about changing the law if necessary were serious, "not lip service".
"I made it clear that I wasn't going to see five regional airports in the country basically grind to a halt for something that wasn't, I believe, the intention of the law."
"If that helped resolve the issue that's good, but in the end I'm glad the parties found a common sense solution."
Air New Zealand also welcomed the resolution of the dispute saying it meant the 25 flights per week that would have had to be cancelled could now continue to operate.