Air travellers disrupted

Press, 5 September 1988, Page 6

Air travellers disrupted

Poor weather and heavy holiday bookings combined to disrupt severely air travel at the

week-end. More than 1000 passengers to all destinations were affected, said Air New Zealand’s traffic superintendent in Christchurch, Mr Peter Milburn. Ansett and smaller airlines were also disrupted by the airport closings which affected Invercargill, Timaru and Wellington on Saturday, and Christchurch, Dunedin and Invercargill yesterday. The resultant congestion at the Christchurch terminal was “among the worst I have seen,” said Mr Milburn. The problems began on Saturday morning when fog closed Invercargill Airport from 7 a.m. to 8.45 a.m., and Timaru Airport from 7 a.m. to 11.30’ a.m.

More troublesome was the

low cloud and rain which closed Wellington Airport virtually all day, apart from an hour’s respite in the early afternoon. That had a major effect on all services, forcing Air New Zealand to cancel eight Christchurch arrivals and eight departures, said Mr Milburn. Efforts to clear the backlog were then hampered by fog which closed Christchurch from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., Dunedin from 8 a.m. to 9.40 a.m., and Invercargill from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. yesterday. The backlog of passengers to Wellington, many of whom planned to travel on to other North Island destinations, was not cleared until about 7 p.m. Most services were also running up to an hour late yesterday, and the airline was “only just catching up” by about 9.30 p.m., said Mr Milburn.

One international connection was also affected, when a Qantas flight from Sydney to Wellington on Saturday had to divert to Christchurch. The 200 passengers were put up at hotels overnight and resumed the journey to Wellington yesterday morning. Mr Milburn said that because of school holidays, and a number of sports tournaments, bookings had been very heavy. There were also many unaccompanied children, which meant a lot of work looking after them and keeping relatives informed. Further disruption threatened last evening, when the mist became “very thick” at Christchurch Airport about 5 p.m., but later cleared. By late last evening there were no further closings forecast, said Mr Milburn.