A disruption to New Zealand’s main oceanic air traffic control system caused delays and diversions for several trans-Tasman flights on Saturday afternoon.
Airways New Zealand said the outage began at 4.30pm, preventing flight plans for the Tasman sector from being processed and forcing five flights into holding patterns—three of which returned to New Zealand.
Flights were also delayed on the ground in both countries. Operations were switched to a backup system before the main system was restored at 5.05pm, with normal services resuming by 5.30pm. The cause of the outage remains unknown, and a full technical review is underway.
