Several flights arriving at Auckland Airport have been diverted or delayed after a fire alarm forced the evacuation of the airport's control tower this afternoon.
Air traffic controllers were forced out of the Auckland control tower at about 1.50pm and returned to work around 2.25pm, according to air traffic control officials.
Airways New Zealand said five planes were able to arrive or depart from Auckland Airport during the 35-minute outage, but others experienced delays.
"Safety was maintained during the incident as management of air traffic was immediately passed to the Christchurch air traffic control centre, which restricted aircraft movements in Auckland controlled airspace to one at a time.
"Airways apologises to the travelling public for any inconvenience due to resulting delays.
"There was no fire and Airways is investigating what triggered the alarm.”
Air New Zealand said five of its flights were diverted because of the incident:
- NZ0430 from Wellington to Auckland diverted back to Wellington
- NZ0120 from Melbourne to Auckland diverted to Wellington
- NZ0546 from Christchurch to Auckland diverted to Hamilton
- NZ5072 from Nelson to Auckland diverted to Hamilton
- NZ0696 from Invercargill to Auckland diverted to Wellington
The airline's flight operations head Hugh Pearce told 1News that "all customers impacted by the diversions above will be reaccommodated on alternative services".
"The airline thanks customers for their patience and understanding."
Additionally, a Qantas flight from Sydney to Auckland also appeared to be diverted to Wellington, according to data from Flightradar24.
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