26 Feb 2021

Air NZ cancels flights after South Auckland Covid outbreak

12:54 pm on 26 February 2021

Air New Zealand has suspended quarantine-free flying for people travelling from New Zealand to Australia until Sunday.

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Photo: James Coleman/ Unsplash

The airline has closed off all bookings for Sydney and Melbourne until 6 March, and for Brisbane until 10 March.

Air New Zealand said this suspension followed the Australian government's hold on travel for anyone who had been in Auckland in the past 14 days, following the Covid-19 outbreak in South Auckland.

Queensland has also restricted quarantine-free flying for people travelling from Aotearoa.

Three Auckland-Sydney, two Auckland-Melbourne and three Auckland-Brisbane quarantine-free services have been cancelled.

The airline is contacting customers to discuss options to book on later flights or to receive credit to book in the future, a spokesperson said.

Flights to Australia in the days following the cancelled flights are already full.

The next available flights to Sydney and Melbourne are on 13 March, while a flight to Brisbane will leave a week later.

"We will update our schedule and customers as more information comes to hand," an Air New Zealand spokesperson said.

"We understand this brings another layer of uncertainty for our customers and hope to connect them back to Australia as soon as we can."

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