\u201cCustomers travelling today should continue to check the Air NZ app or website for the latest information on their flight.\u201d<\/p>\n
McGraw said the airline wanted to provide affected customers with \u201cadditional flexibility\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose travelling on an affected A320 route up to and including Tuesday 2 December may make one free change within seven days of their original travel date, hold the value of their fare in credit for twelve months, or request a refund, including for non-refundable fares,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
McGraw extended his gratitude to the \u201csignificant efforts of [Air NZ\u2019s] engineering and operations team\u201d.<\/p>\n
A Jetstar spokesperson said services had \u201cresumed as planned today with minimal disruption to passengers\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Airbus software update has been completed on all of our New Zealand based aircraft,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thank our crew for their work, and our customers for their patience and understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Air New Zealand and Jetstar, the country\u2019s two main domestic airlines, grounded planes while responding to the situation on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Large queues at Auckland Airport after flights were cancelled because of a global Airbus A320 warning. Photo \/ Katie Harris<\/p>\n
An NZ Herald journalist who was scheduled to fly with Jetstar yesterday morning described scenes of \u201cchaos\u201d at Auckland Airport.<\/p>\n
They said there was a \u201cstampede\u201d when travellers were told their flight was cancelled and that they\u2019d need to rebook downstairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were waiting for flights that had already been delayed because of this global issue. There were no seats available, and people were scattered across the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were hopeful that maybe we\u2019d start boarding soon, and then this packed waiting room with two flights, one to Queenstown and one to Christchurch, we just heard over the intercom that both the flights had been cancelled and that everyone had to go downstairs and rebook,\u201d said the traveller.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of travellers faced long delays at Auckland airport after a global issue with Airbus A320’s. Photo \/ NZ Herald<\/p>\n
Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury acknowledged the global software \u201chas been causing significant logistical challenges and delays\u201d but added its operators were working around the clock to ensure the required updates \u201care deployed as swiftly as possible to get planes back in the sky\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to sincerely apologise to our airline customers and passengers who are impacted now. But we consider that nothing is more important than safety,\u201d he wrote on LinkedIn.<\/p>\n
Airbus warned of impending disruption<\/p>\n
Airbus on Friday warned of potential travel disruption as it upgraded some 6000 operational A320 aircraft, after an incident on a JetBlue flight last month.<\/p>\n
The European plane-maker on Friday instructed its clients to take \u201cimmediate precautionary action\u201d after evaluating the incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cIntense solar radiation may corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls,\u201d Airbus stated, adding that \u201ca significant number of A320 Family aircraft currently in-service\u201d may be affected.<\/p>\n
The faulty software, the Elevator and Aileron Computer (ELAC), is made by aerospace and defence giant Thales.<\/p>\n
\u201cAirbus acknowledges these recommendations will lead to operational disruptions to passengers and customers,\u201d it said, apologising for the inconvenience.<\/p>\n
On October 30, a JetBlue-operated A320 aircraft encountered an in-flight control issue due to a computer malfunction.<\/p>\n
The plane suddenly nosedived as it travelled between Cancun in Mexico and Newark in the United States, and the pilots had to land the plane in Tampa, Florida.<\/p>\n
US media quoted local firefighters saying that some passengers were injured.<\/p>\n
Produced since 1988, the A320 is the best-selling airplane globally, with Airbus selling 12,257 of the aircraft by the end of September compared with the sale of 12,254 Boeing 737s.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Additional reporting Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cCustomers travelling today should continue to check the Air NZ app or website for the latest information on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[104654,68,31844,1863,138,3595,19555,5346,9435,62381,28828,1437,62035,78,117,111,139,69,312,2552,8183,1961,80],"class_list":["post-160148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-a320","tag-air","tag-aircraft","tag-back","tag-business","tag-by","tag-evening","tag-expected","tag-expects","tag-fault","tag-fleet","tag-global","tag-grounded","tag-in","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-says","tag-service","tag-software","tag-this","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}