27 Jun 2011

Airlines to resume nearly all flights on Monday

8:04 am on 27 June 2011

Australian-based airlines are to resume almost all their trans-Tasman and New Zealand domestic flights on Monday.

Dozens of flights were cancelled during the weekend due to ash from the eruption of a volcano in Chile.

Jetstar has announced that all of its trans-Tasman flights will resume on Monday.

The budget airline says domestic services are almost back to normal - apart from the cancellation of two early morning flights between Auckland and Wellington.

Qantas says services to and from Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington will be back on - and there were no flights scheduled for Queenstown.

It says additional flights are being put on for the Sydney to Auckland route, and also between Melbourne and Auckland.

All scheduled Pacific Blue flights will also go ahead on Monday.

Air New Zealand services have not been affected.

Civil Civil Aviation Authority meteorologist Peter Lechner said on Monday the ash cloud was moving east and should have left New Zealand airspace by about lunchtime.

Weekend disruption

Jetstar alone cancelled 30 domestic flights on Sunday, 16 trans-Tasman services and one flight to Singapore.

The airline's parent company Qantas cancelled all trans-Tasman flights, and Pacific Blue stopped 23 international flights to and from New Zealand.

Air New Zealand continued to operate, flying at a lower altitude though it says it was burning 10% more fuel as a consequence.