New Zealand's flag carrier, Air New Zealand, is bracing itself for the arrival of Cyclone Gabrielle, which is already making its presence felt in the country's North Island. While the worst impacts from the cyclone are expected to be on Monday and Tuesday, torrential rain and gale-force winds are affecting the Auckland area today.

Air New Zealand alerted its customers to the situation on Friday and outlined some of its plans for dealing with the impact Cyclone Gabrielle will have on aviation in New Zealand. Yesterday, with the cyclone approaching, that process moved on, with the airline providing an update to its operations, including the cancellation of some flights today and Monday.

Gabrielle is on the doorstep

In his role as chief operational integrity and safety officer, David Morgan is heavily involved in managing the situation, and yesterday he released an update on the airline's plans for the next few days. Morgan said the carrier's focus is on "making changes now to ensure the safety of its customers, staff and aircraft."

"We're doing everything we can to minimise the impact on our schedule, however our top priority at this time is safety and the wellbeing of our customers and our people.

"Part of the preparation involves making changes ahead of the expected impact of the cyclone, so we can reposition crew and move our regional turboprop aircraft to hangars or ports where they won't be at risk of high winds. We'd like to thank customers for their understanding if their plans are impacted."

Turboprops are not flying during the worst

The most severe weather is due to impact the airline between midday on Sunday to around the same time on Monday. ANZ has canceled all turboprop flights to, from or through Auckland Airport and the regional centers of Hamilton and Tauranga in that period. The airline also said that flights to or from Kerikeri and Whangarei between midday Sunday and Tuesday morning are canceled, as are the last flights into Hamilton and Tauranga on Sunday night.

Photo: ATR

Canceling flights and repositioning aircraft and crews from where they should be inevitably leads to ongoing disruptions in the wider network, which ANZ says "may take days to recover." It advises these precautionary moves will have flow-on effects as the airline gets customers on the canceled services to their original destinations and crews and aircraft back to where they are needed.

Days of disruption ahead

Morgan said the airline understands that many of its customers will be affected by this emergency, but we "want to assure them that we're here to help." To that end, ANZ advises those with non-urgent travel between Sunday and Friday, February 17th put their plans on hold and use the airline's flexibility policy.

Photo: Airbus

To assist customers in making alternative arrangements, the flexibility policy allows them to either hold their fare in credit for 12 months or rebook in the same class of travel between Sunday, February 12th and Friday, February 17th, 2023, without fare difference, penalty or service fees. The airline also offered the following guidance:

• The AirNZ app is the easiest way to stay up to date with details and changes
• Most customers can self-serve via the website's Manage Booking tab
• As the call center is inundated with calls only passengers traveling in the next 24 hours should contact it
• The contact center team has no more information than what is available on the website's Travel Alerts page
• Do not travel to the airport if your flight is canceled, as airport staff are unable to rebook customers

Are you affected by the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle? Let us know in the comment section.