Air NZ cancels ‘large number’ of flights

Air New Zealand has cancelled a large number of domestic flights due to the uncertainty of alert level restrictions in place across the country, it says.

On Tuesday, it informed people travelling between or via Auckland from November 2 to December 6 that flights had been cancelled. ‘‘Unfortunately a large number of flights have been cancelled due to the Auckland border remaining in place,’’ Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said.

Customers were given a credit or refunded depending on their fare type.

The vast majority of people are ineligible to travel to and from Auckland under the current alert level 3 restrictions. Air New Zealand continued to operate a reduced schedule to allow for the movement of essential workers and exempt travellers around the country, she said. ‘‘Due to the limited number of seats available, the pricing on some of these flights may be higher than the original fare paid.’’

If customers were still eligible to travel, they could rebook their flight within a week from the date of travel with no additional fare or fees to pay.

Erin Gear, who is living in Nelson but trying to get back to Melbourne for work, said she called Air New Zealand on Friday to book on one of the airline’s just released Auckland-Melbourne green flights. She paid $570 for Nelson-Auckland-Melbourne flights booked for November 4.

On Tuesday she received an email saying her Nelson leg had been cancelled and that someone from the airline would contact her. On Tuesday evening she spent nearly two hours on hold waiting to talk to an Air New Zealand representative. When someone finally answered, the call disconnected after about two minutes, she said.

She had not heard from the airline so sent a message on Facebook

and was told she could be rebooked on another domestic flight.

She asked to move the NelsonAuckland flight for as late as possible but did not hear anything more so went ahead and booked a fare flying November 3 from Nelson to Auckland where she will stay a night at a hotel before departing for Melbourne the next day.

She does not know whether spending a night in Auckland will affect her ability to enter Melbourne. ‘‘It is all up in the air; they just should not have even released the flights on Friday if they were going to do this.’’

‘‘They just should not have even released the flights on Friday if they were going to do this.’’

Erin Gear

Nelson Air NZ customer