Around 81 flights at Wellington Airport were cancelled yesterday due to "extreme wind".
As temperatures soared across the country, MetService also warned of destructive strong wind warnings forecast for areas including inland and high‑country Canterbury, Marlborough and much of the Wellington region.
In a statement, a Wellington Airport spokesperson told 1News it had "around 81 cancelled flights in total yesterday due to the extreme wind".
Air New Zealand's chief operating officer Alex Marren said the high winds on Sunday caused "widespread disruption across our network", with around 50 weather related flight cancellations to and from the capital.
"To minimise disruption, we proactively offered flexibility to customers travelling to or from Wellington yesterday, allowing them to change their flights to another time, subject to availability," she said.
"Due to the number of customers who required rebooking, seat availability into Wellington will be limited over the next couple of days.
Marren thanked everyone for their "patience and understanding".
A JetStar spokesperson said four flights were cancelled yesterday in and out of Wellington due to strong winds, with customers moved to other services.
"Safety is always our top priority, and we thank customers for their understanding and patience," a spokesperson said.
As of Monday morning, all of MetService's watches and warnings had expired, and meteorologist Mmathapelo Makgabutlane said temperatures were expected to cool off over the coming days.
"By Monday, only parts of Northland and the Bay of Plenty remain under heat alerts as the North Island settles back to typical summer temperatures.
"It might be a drizzly start to Monday in the western North Island, then the front brings a bit of showers with it," she said.
“It’s a cooler day down South, with highs ranging from 16 to the mid-20s."
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