The head of Dunedin airport says an air traffic controller calling in sick is not a good enough reason for the disruption caused to passengers.
Some 240 passengers had to be diverted to Invercargill and bussed 200km to Dunedin when the Airways Corporation could not provide air traffic control on Thursday.
Dunedin airport chief executive John McCall says two Air New Zealand Boeing 737s from Auckland and Wellington had to be diverted between 8pm and 9pm and some passengers did not reach their reach their destination until about 1am on Friday.
Mr McCall says the cost to the airport, the city of Dunedin and Air New Zealand is significant and believes the disruption was due to poor planning by the Airways Corporation, which employs the air traffic controllers.
Another 60 passengers travelling from Dunedin to Christchurch were transferred to a turbo-prop ATR-72 as these planes can operate without an air traffic controller.
Mr McCall says he is extremely frustrated by the situation.
The Airways Corporation says it could not call in one of the other five controllers in Dunedin because two were on leave and the others would have been in breach of rules regarding the hours they work.
The corporation says six staff for Dunedin is adequate and it is rare that none are available.
Controllers cannot be called in from other centres, as they need a current licence for each airport.
