Air NZ exploring all options to get travellers moving ASAP

A pair of Air New Zealand jets being serviced on the tarmac at Queenstown Airport (ZQN).
By Zach Havard


One of the biggest customer recoveries in Air New Zealand’s history is well underway as it rebooks all 9,000 customers disrupted from the extreme weather event in Auckland and the closure of the Auckland airport.

Air NZ chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty says the airline refocused the international call centre team to focus on rebooking impacted customers which has helped clear the back log.

“The team have made great inroads working around the clock to rebook the 9,000 disrupted customers onto alternative travel. We have around 1,200 customers left to finalise travel for which is a great effort in a short time period.”

“I want to say a massive thank you to our customers for their patience and acknowledge the huge amount of work our people and our travel agency partners have done to re-accommodate customers.

“We also know there will be some customers whose rebooked flight is further out then they would have hoped. Our next phase of recovery is to work through our schedule and see how we can get them home on earlier services, where possible.

 

“We’re pulling all available levers to get customers on services as soon as possible. This includes working with alliance partners for them to use larger aircraft where possible and reworking our schedule to see where extra capacity can be added.

“Our friends at Singapore Airlines have upgraded a 777-300 to an A380, adding around 200 seats for our customers needing to get into or out of Singapore tonight.

“We’ve added an additional service from Los Angeles departing this evening which will get nearly another 300 customers back to Aotearoa New Zealand on top of the extra Niue flight scheduled for 2 February. And, our New York service tonight will stopover in Fiji to collect another 111 passengers on the way through.”

The airline is also exploring the ability to add passengers to flights currently scheduled for cargo, and using larger aircraft within the Air New Zealand fleet – all opportunities to get people travelling as quickly as possible are being explored.

Many customers have taken up the offer of the accommodation goodwill payment of $250 per night and thousands more have used the flexibility options to put non-urgent flights into credit.

“We know this has been a distressing time for some customers, but rest assured we are using every available option to get them back into the skies and to their destination as quickly as we can.

“We’re grateful for the patience and support of our customers while we do everything we can to recover from this significant event, and I would like to acknowledge and thank our travel agent partners, alliance partners and our Air New Zealand teams across the globe – this is a shining example of what people can do when we all pull together.

“Through all of this we have maintained our international schedule every day since Sunday appreciating the airport did not open until 5am Sunday and many of the baggage systems are still inoperable which requires substantial manual handling.”

The airline is keeping a close eye on the weather over the coming days and is working closely with Auckland Airport to mitigate any potential further flooding where possible.

Latest News

  • Cruise

P&O rescues Rotary volunteers after collapse of Air Vanuatu

P&O Cruises Australia has answered a plea for help from a group of young Australian Rotary volunteers, stranded in Vanuatu following the collapse of Air Vanuatu. The students, many of them teenagers from Albury, NSW, were volunteering for a youth project run by the Hive Rotary Club Australia when the airline abruptly cancelled all flights, […]

  • Destinations

Intrepid continues expansions with launch of first DMC in Jordan

Intrepid has increased its presence in the Middle East with the opening of its first destination management company in Jordan. Based in Amman, the local team will operate Intrepid’s range of nine experiential small group tours in Jordan from this summer, with a view to expanding the range for 2025 and beyond. Zina Bencheikh, managing […]

  • Appointments

Minor hotels appoints Puneet Dhawan to key Asia role

Global hotel owner and operator Minor Hotels has appointed Puneet Dhawan as head of Asia as the group plots its growth in Asia and India. From July, Dhawan will be responsible for the performance of all Minor Hotels properties in Asia, working in close collaboration with the Minor Hotels senior leadership team and will report […]

  • Appointments

Abercrombie & Kent and Crystal appoint Evon Ler to director of sales, Asia

Abercrombie & Kent Travel Group have announced that Evon Ler will join them in the new role of director of sales, Asia. She will work closely with Tony Archbold (VP, Sales, APAC, Crystal) and Susan Haberle (VP, Sales & Partnerships, APAC, A&K) with trade support across the region. Ler comes to the A&K family with more […]