Air NZ cancels flights, says 2,000 disrupted as oil pipeline shuts

[BENGALURU] Air New Zealand Ltd said on Monday it was forced to cancel several flights out of the city of Auckland, disrupting the journeys of about 2,000 passengers, after a fuel pipeline shutdown stopped airlines from refuelling.

The shutdown of New Zealand Refining Company Ltd's pipeline has disrupted the plans of all airlines operating in and out of New Zealand's busiest airport, the airline said in a market filing.

The airline's shares were 2.5 per cent lower at NZ$3.17 in early trading, while NZ Refining shares were also down 2.4 per cent, in a flat overall market.

Seven Air New Zealand flights have been cancelled for Monday. As well, some long-haul services to and from North America and Asia would undertake refueling stops at some Pacific and Australian airports, the airline said.

It said the fuel supply issue was unlikely to have a material impact on its fiscal-year 2018 results.

New Zealand Refining, also known as Refining New Zealand, said in a separate statement that a pipeline from its Auckland refinery suffered a leak, resulting in an outage.

It did not specify when the pipeline would resume operations.

REUTERS