Flights circle above NZ amid closed airspace reports
Australia-bound flights are circling above New Zealand, amid reports that the airspace has been closed.
Passengers on a Brisbane-bound flight from Wellington were told the Oceania airspace was closed and the plane had to turn back.
Flight Radar shows at least one Air New Zealand flight to Brisbane has looped back and is now in a holding pattern above the capital.
Airways, which manages the New Zealand airspace, and Air New Zealand have been contacted for comment.
More to come...
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Otago Daily Times
17 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
'Intense investigation': Air traffic control outage to be scrutinised
An air traffic control IT systems outage to the oceanic area affected flights in New Zealand and Australia yesterday, including this Brisbane-bound flight from Wellington, on which passengers were told the Oceania airspace was closed. Photo: Flight Radar An air traffic control systems disruption which affected trans-Tasman flights was highly unusual and will be the subject of a full review, an independent aviation commentator says. The IT systems outage on Saturday night forced some flights into a holding pattern, while others had to divert or were held on the ground. Airways New Zealand said the outage affected its main oceanic area's air traffic control system from 4.30pm Saturday, impacting flights in New Zealand and Australia. Air traffic control operations were switched to a back-up system during the outage, before the main system was restored and normal operations were back up by 5.30pm Saturday. Five flights were held in the air for about 40 minutes during the outage. Three of those were then diverted back to New Zealand and two were able to carry on to their destination. Airways has yet to provide any details about the cause. Aviation commentator Irene King, a former Aviation NZ chief executive, said Airways' management of the Oceanic air traffic control system was typically very robust and the glitch was highly unusual. "They'll be doing a pretty intense investigation as to what went wrong and why. This team are extraordinarily practised, and that's part of the assurance that they provide to the airlines and to the travelling public." King said she was not aware of any cases like this happening before in the airspace managed by airways.
RNZ News
17 hours ago
- RNZ News
Air traffic control systems outage will be scrutinised, industry figure says
An air traffic control IT systems outage to the oceanic area affected flights in New Zealand and Australia yesterday, including this Brisbane-bound flight from Wellington, on which passengers were told the Oceania airspace was closed. Photo: Flight Radar An air traffic control systems disruption which affected trans-Tasman flights was highly unusual and will be the subject of a full review, an independent aviation commentator says. The IT systems outage on Saturday night forced some flights into a holding pattern, while others had to divert or were held on the ground. Airways New Zealand said the outage affected its main oceanic area's air traffic control system from 4.30pm Saturday, impacting flights in New Zealand and Australia. Air traffic control operations were switched to a back-up system during the outage, before the main system was restored and normal operations were back up by 5.30pm Saturday. Five flights were held in the air for about 40 minutes during the outage. Three of those were then diverted back to New Zealand and two were able to carry on to their destination. Airways has yet to provide any details about the cause. Aviation commentator Irene King, a former Aviation NZ chief executive, said Airways' management of the Oceanic air traffic control system was typically very robust and the glitch was highly unusual. "They'll be doing a pretty intense investigation as to what went wrong and why. This team are extraordinarily practised, and that's part of the assurance that they provide to the airlines and to the travelling public." King said she was not aware of any cases like this happening before in the airspace managed by Airways. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Otago Daily Times
Air traffic control fault disrupts multiple trans-Tasman flights
Passengers on NZ271 were told Oceania airspace was closed. Photo: Flight Radar An air traffic control outage has disrupted multiple trans-Tasman flights on Saturday night, with an investigation now underway. Multiple Australia-bound flights were forced into a holding pattern, with some diverted back to New Zealand. Flight Radar showed at least one Air New Zealand flight to Brisbane had looped back and was in a holding pattern above the capital. Airways New Zealand chief executive James Young said the organisation's main oceanic air traffic control system experienced a "disruption", which temporarily impacted air traffic services operating across the Tasman. "New Zealand's oceanic airspace covers a large area across the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea. The oceanic air traffic control system is the system Airways uses to manage aircraft flying to and from New Zealand across this 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. "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, he said." The main system was restored at 5.05pm, and normal operations had resumed by 5.30pm, he said. A full technical review is now underway. "Our main priority is the safety of the travelling public and we apologise to all customers and their passengers who were affected," he said. Air New Zealand has been contacted for comment.
