19 May 2020

Live: Covid-19 updates from New Zealand and around the world on 19 May

6:02 pm on 19 May 2020

As Covid-19 spreads around the world, it can be daunting keeping up with the information. For RNZ, our responsibility is to give you verified, up to the minute, trustworthy information to help you make decisions about your lives and your health. We'll also be asking questions of officials and decision makers about how they're responding to the virus. Our aim is to keep you informed.

Seven airports around the country are to lose air traffic services after a decision by Airways New Zealand.

The organisation, which is the sole Air Traffic Service provider in New Zealand, confirmed today it would withdraw services from towers at Hawke's Bay, Gisborne, New Plymouth, Rotorua and Invercargill airports.

It will also cease providing airfield flight information services at Kapiti Coast Airport and Milford Sound Piopiotahi Aerodrome.

The move is a response to the huge decline in flight numbers caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the union representing pilots has said it will fight the decision over safety concerns.

Airways now plans to work with the industry on an alternative plan to deliver regional aviation services.

Read back through the day's Covid-19 developments:

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs