Auckland Airport tech outage causes international flight delays
By Sarah Pollok
Multimedia Journalist·NZ Herald·
10 Dec, 2024 11:29 PM3 mins to read
A technical issue at Auckland Airport is causing long delays with international flights in and out of the airport this morning. Photo / Supplied
A technology outage at Auckland Airport’s International Airport created a major delay for travellers this morning.
Airlines had to manually process luggage this morning, resulting in a backlog of travellers but the outage has since been solved and normal processing has resumed.
The airport has not identified the cause of the fault but has confirmed it occurred outside the airport’s network.
“Auckland Airport advises that no cable cuts have taken place at Auckland Airport overnight by construction teams or contractors on any of our building sites, creating disruption at the international terminal this morning,” she said.
Auckland Airport is working with external network providers to establish the cause of the fault.
One traveller flying to Sydney with Jetstar said they had been waiting at the airport with their five young children since 3.30am and was told her flight would be delayed until at least 3.15pm.
On social media, another passenger said they had to wait in the bag drop queue for three hours for their 6am flight only to discover it had been delayed until this evening.
Air New Zealand’s general manager of airports Kate Boyer told the Herald several flights had been delayed.
“This morning’s network outage has caused delays ranging from 13 minutes to an hour for more than 10 of our international flights.
“Our teams are working hard to assist customers and sincerely appreciate their patience and understanding.”
Three Jetstar flights were delayed because of the airport’s IT issue and passengers were reportedly updated about new flight times via text messages and announcements.
Read More: Auckland Airport reveals new check-in kiosks and bag drops
What are passengers entitled to?Travel disruptions can often result in unexpected costs related to food, accommodation and transport or by missing experiences that have already been paid for.
Whether you can get reimbursement for costs related to a flight delay or cancellation from your airline depends on whether the airline is responsible.
The Civil Aviation Act states that if a flight is cancelled or delayed for reasons within the airline’s control, passengers are entitled to compensation of up to 10 times the cost of their ticket, or the actual cost of delay, whichever is lower.
Things within an airline’s control include operational or mechanical issues, overbooking and staffing.
Bad weather or, in today’s case, an external network outage, are not within the airline’s control. Therefore, travellers cannot seek reimbursement from their airline.
Travellers who purchased travel insurance before their trip may be covered for any costs related to the delay, such as transport, food or accommodation, or getting back costs for missed bookings at a destination, depending on their policy.
