Christmas Eve airport angst as Jetstar delays flights

Domestic and international travellers are facing an anxious Christmas Eve with some flight delays.

Passengers travelling from Auckland to Wellington with Jetstar have been left frustrated after a four-hour delay was put on their midday flight to the capital.

A flight to Palmerston North was cancelled, while a flight to Christchurch has been delayed three hours until 7.15pm today.

While the passengers are expected to arrive today, the delays impacted on their connecting flights.

One woman emailed the Herald saying there were several delays involving the company's planes.

"Jetstar have flight delays today of all days, making holiday-goers late between Wellington and Auckland, people are missing connections to other flights and buses and having to get very expensive flights on Air New Zealand.

"I am for one an unhappy traveller and due to needing to get back to Auckland and also very broke. Merry Xmas to all but not Jetstar!!!!!!"

The husband of another traveller was facing an anxious wait for his wife, tweeting he was concerned that she would make her connecting flight in time.

A Jetstar spokesman apologised to its customers for the disruption which he said was due to "crewing and technical issues".

"A series of crewing and technical issues have affected the Jetstar New Zealand network today, resulting in a cancellation of an Auckland-Palmerston service and rolling delays for flights between Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

"The seriousness of the technical issue meant that replacement parts for the aircraft had to be flown in, but our engineers on the ground are currently doing their best to get the aircraft on its way once again."

The spokesman said the airline empathised with customers who were hoping to get home to their families or travelling with their loved ones for Christmas.

"Safety is always our number priority, as our teams on the ground are working extra hard to get our customers to their destinations.

"We once again apologise to our customers affected by the disruptions."

Internationally, the Auckland Airport website shows a Virgin Airlines connecting flight from Sydney has been delayed, as was as a Qantas flight from Sydney and an Air New Zealand flight from Sydney.

An Auckland Airport spokesperson was not aware of any major issues and said Christmas Eve was one of their busiest days of the year.

However, there was an issue with an x-ray machine about midday today but the backlog of travellers was cleared by about 2pm.

An Air New Zealand flight from Adelaide had been rescheduled, as had a flight from Incheon in Korea.

Air NZ has been approached for comment.