Travellers are being warned about the importance of insurance as weather ruins plans for thousands with 80 per cent of international flights through Auckland Airport cancelled today.
Hundreds of flights through Auckland today have been cancelled, hitting plans for 45,000 and this disruption will stretch into tomorrow.
It will take days for Air New Zealand, the biggest operator through Auckland Airport, to recover its schedule.
Auckland Airport chief customer officer Scott Tasker said the worst effects of the weather were yet to come and more airlines would be updating plans in the next few hours.
‘‘We’d normally expect hundreds of flights to arrive and take off to take off across a normal day at Auckland Airport so as you’d expect, it’s pretty quiet in the terminals. We’ve got more staff than passengers on deck right now and it does feel a bit like the early days of New Zealand’s Covid response,’' he said.
All domestic flights have been cancelled.
“We expect the worst effects of the weather is yet to come but at this stage around 80 per cent of international flights today have been cancelled,” said Tasker
Significant flight cancellations at Auckland Airport today.
— Auckland Airport (@AKL_Airport) February 13, 2023
•85/104 international flights cancelled
•301/301 domestic flights cancelled
Please check with your airline for updates on your flight.
Stay safe Auckland.
Air New Zealand will resume domestic and international jet operations from mid-morning tomorrow, and turboprop operations from mid-afternoon, based on current weather predictions.
Following the cancellation of 509 flights, the airline says it is now focusing its efforts on getting disrupted passengers moving 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 6500 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 a rule for anyone that’s on any diverted service, the airline tries to provide accommodation.
However, as weather is beyond its control, for all other disruptions, the airline says it is confident it had given customers sufficient notice.
The approach falls within Consumer NZ’s stance on disruption.
It says that when something outside an airline’s control causes flight disruptions the airline doesn’t have to provide a refund or reimburse costs.
However, the airline will usually rebook passengers on another flight or offer a credit.
‘‘Although this may be hard for passengers who are impacted, we don’t think it’s realistic to expect airlines to bear all the costs related to weather-disrupted flights. Instead, consumers should consider whether they need travel insurance – domestic and international - so they have cover for weather-related disruptions,’' said a spokeswoman.
In the European Union, which has the best consumer protections for flight disruptions, they don’t cover the costs of most weather-related cancellations or delays either.
Travel Agents’ Association of New Zealand (TAANZ) president Brent Thomas said more travellers were taking insurance for overseas flights and increasing numbers were doing the same for domestic journeys, especially when part of travel to an event.
He said passengers should look closely at what their insurance covers.
‘‘You can’t get insurance after an event is known about. I can’t stress strongly enough that people should be looking to take out insurance at the time of booking not any later,’’ he said.
‘‘Travel insurance doesn’t cost any more and it gives you that cover between time of booking and time of travel.’’
Thomas, who is also House of Travel’s commercial director, said his firm was dealing with thousands of inquiries from customers.
Jetstar has also cancelled flights in and out of Auckland today.
Air NZ’s Geraghty said as the airline did during the Auckland flooding, it will be adding larger aircraft to routes, working with its star alliance partners, converting cargo flights to passenger flights and adding additional services where possible into the ports where most needed.
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.
Air New Zealand’s service from New York diverted to Rarotonga today and tomorrow morning will carry on its flight, 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. It is the second time in just over a fortnight that it has had to cancel flights through Auckland.
On January 27 damaged landing lights and then extensive flooding disrupted flights for a day and a half and impacted plans for more than 10,000 passengers.
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