7 Sep 2006

Air New Zealand to fly into Niue in daylight because of airport lighting concerns

8:12 pm on 7 September 2006

Air New Zealand is to fly into Niue during daylight hours because of concerns about lighting at the island's Hanan International airport.

Niue has been dogged by power outages and the government is discussing with New Zealand plans to replace the island's dilapidated main cable, which is 30 years old.

Air New Zealand flies to Niue once a week from Auckland and for the past 20 months has usually arrived and left during the night, but from this week the flight is timed to arrive at breakfast and leave mid morning.

Technical experts are expected on tomorrow's flight (saturday RNZI TIME) to assess the lighting problems.