My wife and I were booked to fly from Hawks Bay Airport to Sydney via Auckland, leaving at 1.50 pm on a Tuesday afternoon. The aircraft we were to depart on struck a bird on landing at NPE, damaging the plane. There was a delay as engineers inspected the plane, putting the expected flight times back. The courteous staff at Air NZ rebooked our connecting flights to Sydney. Unfortunately, after further inspections by engineers, the aircraft was deemed unfit to fly. By this time there were no more seats available to fly us to Auckland.
Rob Johnson from Air NZ took over and soon had us booked on the last two seats available to Wellington, which would connect us on the first flight out of Wellington on Wednesday. He organized accommodation at Wellington airport, including dinner. All this at a time when a full plane load of passengers needed to be rebooked. Rob and his team worked with grace and absolute professionalism during this whole time that for a lot of passengers was extremely stressful. Our thanks to Rob and the team at Hawks Bay Airport for your kind and considerate service. We look forward to seeing you again.
A tip for anyone caught in delays such as this. Stay calm, treat the airline staff with respect and they will pay back the respect many times over.