Air New Zealand cancelled 821 flights and about 49,000 customers had their travel plans disrupted due to Cyclone Gabrielle. By yesterday (Feb. 15) the airline resumed both the international as well as domestic routes with minor disruptions.
“To have the airline operating largely as normal today is no small feat," said Leanne Geraghty, chief customer and sales officer, Air New Zealand. "We had to divert nine services last night to other ports like Christchurch and Nadi, rework our schedule to allow for the planes and crew we had out of place, bring a large proportion of turboprops back out of storage and then work to rebook and look after those who have been disrupted."
As of today, about 6500 international customers are still affected by flight cancellations, mainly from Australia, North America, Asia, and the Pacific Islands.
The airline is facing a bigger challenge of finding the additional capacity and deploying it at the place where it is needed the most, either by using a larger aircraft or by increasing the frequency.
The airline has already added extra international flights to Fiji, Tahiti, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Apia along with North America. On the domestic network, it has added extra services between Auckland Airport and Christchurch International Airport (CHC), mainly to recover passengers diverted south when landing in Auckland was impossible.