Kiwis jetting off for the school holidays are being warned to prepare for delays, as airports and airlines try to cope with high numbers of travellers and staff shortages.
On Sunday morning, there were three domestic flight cancellations out of Auckland Airport, and 11 cancellations at Wellington Airport due to staffing issues.
Air New Zealand says wild weather conditions, employee sickness and engineering issues are causing disruptions.
"These conditions, coupled with the busiest period of travel we have seen since pre-Covid, really is the perfect storm and our teams are working around the clock to help ease these pressures and get our customers where they need to go," said Leanne Geraghty, Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer.
"When flights are cancelled or disrupted, we do our best to re-accommodate passengers on alternate services.
"Domestically, our flights southbound are fully booked over the coming few days, largely due to the school holiday period, so re-accommodating those who have been disrupted is more challenging than usual."
Auckland Airport is warning travellers it will be busy at the terminals, and is advising people to allow extra time before their flights and to keep checking airline travel alerts.
"We're working hard to get you to your destination these holidays," a spokesperson said.
Wellington Airport said things are "going smoothly" this weekend despite the flight cancellations.
“A few flights cancelled due to staffing but passengers all put onto other flights,” a spokesperson said.
It comes as Air New Zealand reinstates its flexibility policy, allowing customers who have flights booked between now and 31 July to hold the value of their fare in credit for 12 months from the time they requested their credit, or change their flight and have their change fee waived.
Around 2500 people have taken up the opportunity to opt into credit in the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, a leading South Auckland GP has warned the relentless pressure on health resources amid rising Covid cases is taking its toll on staff.
Dr Matire Harwood, who works at the Papakura Marae Health Clinic, says the health system is struggling to cope.
“My understanding is that there are over 800 ads for GPs across Aotearoa at the moment, so we’re all struggling to find someone,” she told Q+A.
Harwood says shortages in clinics are causing more people to end up in hospital.
“We’ve seen people who are not able to get in to us, getting Covid for a second time, and unfortunately the second time has hit them a bit harder than the first time and they’ve ended up in hospital acutely because they haven’t been able to get in to see us," she said.
"We might be able to manage it at home but its got too far along and they’ve ended up in hospital with pneumonia.”
Harwood disagrees with the Health Minister Andrew Little, who says the health system overall is coping.
“We can’t screen for cancers, we can’t manage their diabetes as well, we’re doing a lot of prescriptions over the phone without seeing people, and again they’re saying they waited too long to see us and presented acutely to emergency departments.
“We’re just treading water.”
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