Travellers left 'stressed' as wild Wellington weather flight cancellations throw travel plans into disarray

December 3, 2019

Severe winds have forced the cancellation of multiple flights.

The cancellation of multiple flights in and out of Wellington today has taken a big toll on plans of many domestic and international travellers.

There have been 23 flights in and 20 flights out of the capital city cancelled by Air New Zealand this morning.

One woman flying home to Auckland from Wellington says she only found out that flights were being cancelled because of her Uber driver. 

Pascal Silliman said because she at the airport early, she was one of the lucky ones who managed to change her flight.

But it could have been a different story.

“I didn’t get notified that the flight was cancelled like by email or something, so I was just lucky to come here early, I wouldn’t have known otherwise,” said Ms Silliman.

International traveller Felix King was one of those unlucky passengers, with a number of future flights, and overseas plans now jeopardised because of the cancellations.

“I walked into the airport and found out that flights cancelled. But that’s a flight to Auckland, which leads me to San Francisco, then South America and all of those flights I can’t make them,” said Mr King.

“So I’m a bit stressed about that. There’s a bunch of tours as well in South America which I’m going to have to some how either move or cancel or figure that out. So yeah, not too happy.”

Local Wellingtonians, the Wellington U19 Cricket team were also affected, on their way to the national tournament in Lincoln which starts tomorrow.

Team member Thomas Jones said they were meant to fly out at 10 this morning.

“A lot of waiting. I think we’re scheduled to go at 3.35pm but that’s subject to change with the wind and weather and things like that,” Mr Jones said.

Air New Zealand is offering passengers fare flexibility for the next 72 hours, where those with cancelled flights will have the option to transfer their booking to another date or hold the fare value in credit for up to 12 months toward future travel.

There are also additional services that have been put on by the airline for this evening to accommodate disrupted customers.

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