Flight across the country were grounded for a short time this afternoon after a fire alarm went off at the building that houses Airways' radar centre in Christchurch.
Passengers wait for their flights at Auckland Airport. Photo: 123RF
Passengers at airports in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch reported delays, and were told that a radar issue was preventing any flights from taking off.
The issue has now been resolved and normal air traffic has resumed.
AirWays New Zealand initially said there was an issue with the air traffic control system which was affecting flights.
It said that the alarm went off at 1.30pm and the fire brigade had now cleared the building as safe.
It was caused by smoke from a power supply.
Airways says international flights were not affected, as the main Oceanic Control Centre is independently managed from Auckland.
The radar centre continued to operate, the company said in a statement.
"There is a fault with our main air traffic system and we are operating on our back up standby system. This means taking a conservative approach to managing New Zealand's airspace. Therefore departures throughout New Zealand have been halted and arrivals are being managed.
"This is a significant time of day when traffic flows are increasing with international flights starting to arrive."
"The safety and wellbeing of the travelling public, our staff and our customers is our main priority. We will provide an update as more information comes to hand."
Christchurch Airport said earlier that planes were grounded "across the country" as a result.
Apologies for delays to your travel at the moment. Planes have been grounded at airports all over the country as a result of an issue for @AirwaysNZ, which manages air traffic control.
— Christchurch Airport (@CHC_Airport) September 30, 2019
