Air New Zealand sends recovery flights to stranded passengers in Samoa, Japan

Air New Zealand is sending recovery flights to Samoa and Japan to bring back customers left stranded after Auckland Airport was shut down by flooding. The airline said almost all the 9000 customers whose travel plans were disrupted have now been rebooked, with an estimated 300 still to process as of Wednesday evening. On Thursday, the airline had scheduled an extra flight from Apia to Auckland to provide an earlier travel option for 300 customers. Previously, the earliest direct flights available weren’t until February 25, with some passengers being rebooked on flights via Fiji and Australia. An extra service using a 787-9 Dreamliner would also operate from Tokyo, but would not depart until February 6 – though this was still sooner than expected. Samoa and Japan were the two ports that remained in high demand with limited options, said Air New Zealand chief customer and sales officer Leanne Geraghty. “These extra flights will be a relief to those needing to get home.” On Tuesday Air New Zealand announced it had added additional services from Los Angeles and Niue, while one of its nonstop flights from New York had made a stop in Fiji to pick up passengers there. The airline had also teamed up with codeshare partner Singapore Airlines, upgauging one of its 777-300s to an A380, which had added around 200 seats to bring home customers stuck in Singapore. Geraghty said the flooding event, which saw international flights into Auckland Airport paused for 37 hours from Friday night, had resulted in “one of our biggest rebookings in our history”, with effectively two customers rebooked every minute since late Saturday evening.<br/>