Air New Zealand flight cancellation leaves Gisborne fans stranded for All Blacks test

An Air New Zealand de Havilland Q300s at Gisborne Airport. A flight to Auckland on Saturday was cancelled after the aircraft's pilot reported an "engineering discrepancy”. The cancellation meant some rugby fans missed the All Blacks-Springboks test at Eden Park.

Eden Park was not quite packed to capacity for Saturday night’s blockbuster All Blacks-Springbok test after Air New Zealand Flight 5164 failed to leave Gisborne that morning.

Passengers were notified over Gisborne Airport’s intercom system about 25 minutes before the scheduled 10.10am departure, and soon after by text and email, that “your flight requires engineering attention”.

Air New Zealand offered passengers a new flight to Auckland – on Sunday afternoon, which was no help to rugby fans.

One impacted passenger, who declined to be named, told the Gisborne Herald he had only just arrived at the airport and assumed the intercom message was going to announce that boarding was now open.

“I would have thought they would have known earlier if they had a aircraft capable of flying or not.”

He estimated he had been on 60 or 70 national and international flights and had never previously experienced a cancelled flight.

“It’s bad timing. I wish it had happened on one of those other flights,” he said. “But hiccups happen when one is travelling, I know that.”

He watched the match on television and later regretfully read that the Eden Park atmosphere matched that of the 2011 Rugby World Cup final.

The man received another Air New Zealand text on Sunday, which stated his return Sunday flight 5171 had also been cancelled for the same engineering reason.

All flights in and out of Gisborne were operating on Monday.

The passenger will receive a full refund from Air New Zealand.

“I was expecting a flight credit as was normal practice during Covid-19,” he said.

Air New Zealand chief operating officer Alex Marren said the aircraft’s pilot reported an “engineering discrepancy” upon take-off when leaving Auckland, earlier on Saturday.

“While this did not impact the safety of the flight, standard operating procedure requires an engineering check to resolve the issue on the ground.

“The decision was made to return the aircraft to Auckland where parts and engineers were readily available and where a test ground run could be undertaken.

“This resulted in the cancellation of the NZ5164 service from Gisborne to Auckland.

“Customers were rebooked to a service departing either that day or the next, and we apologise for the impact this had on their travel.”

On July 31, all Gisborne flights were cancelled after two de Havilland Q300s required repairs.

At the time Mayor Rehette Stoltz said Air New Zealand was a lifeline to Gisborne as an isolated region.