Air New Zealand is preparing for Cyclone Gabrielle by offering customers flexibility on their fares. The flexibility corresponds to customers booked to travel to, from, or through Auckland, Whangarei, Kerikeri, Tauranga, Hamilton, and New Plymouth between Sunday, 12 February and Friday, 17 February.
Leanne Geraghty, Air New Zealand Chief Customer and Sales Officer, stated that the airline would do everything in its power to limit the impact of the cyclone on travel plans. However, customers should prepare themselves for delays or cancellations.
“Teams around the business have kicked into gear to start planning for any disruptions to our network due to Cyclone Gabrielle,” Geraghty said. “We will do everything we can to limit the impact on our schedule; however, with severe winds forecast for the North Island, it’s likely we’ll need to make some changes.”
Currently working closely with relevant authorities to comprehend the severity of the cyclone, the airline will work through any required amendments to its schedule over the next 48 hours.
“We encourage those with non-urgent travel, travelling to, from or through Auckland, Whangarei, Kerikeri, Tauranga, Hamilton and New Plymouth between Sunday, 12 February and Friday, 17 February, to consider the use of our flexibility policy. Customers can either hold their fare in credit for 12 months or rebook in the same class of travel between Sunday, 12 February 2023 and Wednesday, 22 February 2023, without fare difference, penalty or service fees.”
Those who may be directly impacted by changes in the airline’s schedule will be contacted. Air New Zealand advises customers to keep an eye on the Air NZ app or website to be aware of travel updates and alerts.
“We thank our customers while we work to plan for this weather event,” expressed Geraghty. “At this stage, our customer care teams don’t have any more detail around potential schedule changes, so we ask customers to bear with us, and we will be in touch once we have more information. We will continue to update our website with more information as we monitor and plan for Cyclone Gabrielle.”
As the airline continues to monitor the situation closely, flexibility guidelines will cease and revert to standard fare conditions if improvements in the weather occur.
