Cyclone Gabrielle: Flights through Auckland Airport resume

Flights have resumed through Auckland Airport although there are still cancellations and airlines face moving a backlog of tens of thousands of passengers disrupted by Cyclone Gabrielle.

The airport’s arrivals board shows several international and domestic flights have landed, including services from Santiago, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Flights from Melbourne, New York, Perth and Vancouver are listed as cancelled. Most departing international flights are showing as operating but the airport and airlines have urged passengers to check with the airline on the status of their flight.

Many domestic flights are operating as weather is fine with little wind in the city but there are cancellations of regional services to areas hit hardest by the weather.

Regional flights to Napier have departed. Passengers have been advised to check the status of their domestic flight.

Flightradar shows skies busy over New Zealand again today.

Follow live updates of Cyclone Gabrielle here.

The resumption of flights through Auckland yesterday was short-lived.

More than 50 flights Air New Zealand hoped to operate were cancelled from mid-afternoon when strong winds returned. Just four flights are reported to have landed yesterday in what was hoped to be the start of a big airline rebuild.

Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer Captain David Morgan said yesterday the strength and direction of winds at Auckland Airport made it challenging to service aircraft, and it would be unsafe for people to operate in those conditions.

He warned today would begin without all aircraft and crew in the locations required.

‘‘We can also expect ongoing weather challenges, so we’re asking customers to please bear with us - our people are doing everything they can.”

Customers are advised to change their flight or put it into credit via the Air New Zealand app.

The suspension of flights yesterday afternoon has aggravated the recovery of airline networks.

Auckland Airport estimated 45,000 passengers were affected by the 30-hour initial suspension of services when the cyclone first hit.

Air New Zealand faces rebooking more than 35,000 passengers, including 10,000 on international flights.

The airline said yesterday that about 1700 international passengers needed to be rebooked.

Although some have been told they may not fly for up to 19 days, the airline says schedule changes, bigger planes and help from alliance partners would cut that time, as happened after the January 27 floods in Auckland.