A Kiwi passenger on a delayed flight from Australia was told “technical issues” were to blame.
In a statement to the Herald, the Civil Aviation Authority confirmed a “technical fault” this afternoon in the main Operational Control System (OCS) platform had “temporarily disrupted air traffic services across several sectors”.
“The issue has since been resolved, and Oceania airspace is now open.
“The Civil Aviation Authority continues to monitor the situation closely.
“In line with our safety oversight responsibilities, we will be following up with Airways New Zealand regarding the cause of the outage as part of our normal regulatory activities. Further updates will be provided if required.”
Jetstar confirmed the disruption was caused by an air traffic control outage.
“Two Jetstar flights, one from Christchurch and one from Dunedin, have returned to refuel but are set to re-depart shortly.”
In a statement on its website, Airways NZ chief executive James Young said Airways experienced a disruption to its main oceanic air traffic control system, “which temporarily disrupted air traffic services operating across the Tasman”.
The oceanic air traffic control system is used by Airways to manage aircraft flying to and from New Zealand across the oceanic airspace.
“At 4.30pm, the main oceanic air traffic control system experienced an outage and operations were switched to a back-up system. During this time, flight plans for the Tasman sector were unable to be processed through the system, causing delays,” Young said.
“As a result of this, five flights were held in the air, three of which were diverted back to New Zealand after holding for around 40 minutes, with the remaining two flights proceeding to their destination after holding. Flights were also held on the ground in both Australia and New Zealand during this time.”
Young said the main system was restored at 5.05pm with normal operations resuming by 5.30pm
“A full technical review is now under way. Our main priority is the safety of the travelling public and we apologise to all customers and their passengers who were affected.”
Air New Zealand told the Herald the airline’s flights were now operating as normal but referred further queries to Airways.
The Herald has also sought comment from Associate Transport Minister James Meager who has responsibility for Civil Aviation.
Passenger on delayed flight told of ‘technical issues’
Those flying from Gold Coast Airport to Christchurch tonight on Jetstar flight JQ187 were unable to check in, passenger Carl Taylor told the Herald.
“They told us there were technical issues with the airspace and that check-in is closed until they make an announcement.”
Taylor said it was uncertain whether the flight, which was due to depart at 6.55pm, would go ahead as scheduled or be cancelled.
“I don’t even think it’s left Christchurch yet,” he said.
“It says check-in is open, but you can’t actually check in.
“I just wish I took my Air New Zealand flight yesterday like I had planned.
“I actually said to my wife, ‘We’ve never had an issue with Jetstar before, and this is the first time’ – although it doesn’t sound like it is Jetstar’s issue.”
More to come.