Air passengers warned to prepare for disruptions as winter weather, staff shortages and engineering issues cause chaos

A perfect storm of winter weather, staff shortages and engineering issues is causing problems at airports across the country as airlines face their busiest school holiday period in years. As a result Air New Zealand is warning passengers to prepare for disruptions and potential flight changes in the coming days. Air New Zealand is facing its busiest July school holiday period in two years. Over the next two weeks, more than 672,000 customers are booked to travel, both domestically, and overseas. But the airline is urging travellers to prepare for flight changes as winter weather, a wave of illnesses, and engineering issues hit the network at peak time. Its CEO says most flights are full with limited capacity to move customers around but staff are doing everything they can to limit disruptions. Air NZ chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty said its teams are working "around the clock" to get our customers where they need to go. "We anticipate delays and cancellations may continue across the coming few days and we are actively working to reduce the disruption to our customers as much as possible," she said. "When flights are cancelled or disrupted, we do our best to reaccommodate passengers on alternate services. Domestically, our flights southbound are fully booked over the coming few days, largely due to the school holiday period, so reaccommodating those who have been disrupted is more challenging than usual." She added Air NZ has reinstated its flexibility policy, which allows customers to hold the value of their fare in credit for 12 months. <br/>