(Reuters) – Air New Zealand resumed services to all airports on Wednesday, including those in the heavily impacted regions of New Plymouth, Napier, and Gisborne, after Cyclone Gabrielle led to 821 flight cancellations and affected 49,000 customers.
The airline experienced minor disruptions in the morning during the resumption of services as it worked through operationalising the routes, it said.
The nation’s biggest carrier on Tuesday was forced to halt domestic and international operations from Auckland due to increased gusty winds in the afternoon, which also led to a further 300 cancelled services.
“With aircraft and crew displaced around the network, our morning operations were a little bumpy. But we are largely back in the swing of things today,” the airline’s Chief Customer and Sales Officer Leanne Geraghty said.
The cyclone moved away from New Zealand on Wednesday, with authorities beginning to assess the impact of floods, landslides, and high winds that left three people dead and displaced thousands from their homes.
This is the second weather event to hit the Antipodean nation, and has caused significant flooding in Auckland, its largest city.
The carrier also said it added extra services to multiple cities to its international network, as well as additional domestic services between Christchurch and Auckland.
(Reporting by Archishma Iyer in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)
