Hopefully there were at least some avgeeks onboard who appreciated the extra flying, given how limited those opportunities are in New Zealand nowadays?
Continue reading: Air New Zealand’s 11+ Hour Flight To Nowhere
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Interesting that they would fly so far back rather than finding the nearest available airport or somewhere in Australia like Cairns airport.
It's off topic but when I read the headline "Flight To Nowhere" it reminded me about reading of the time NZAir used to fly sightseeing flights to Antarctica. That ended in 1979 when one flight crashed into the side of Mt. Erebus during a white out condition. That flight was noteworthy for many things including a case study in business management on how to handle a crisis and how a government basically covered their butt they later apologized for.
Not surprised by the sparse load factor. Korea has very strict quarantine requirements for everyone (akin to Australia's), and has suspended virtually all visa-waiver agreements (including with NZ).
If they had already passed the halfway point then yes, it would be better to continue the trip. I am assuming the passengers and cargo were already pre-cleared for arrival into Seoul. If they had diverted to say Hong Kong; then the plane with its cargo, crew and passengers could be held in quarantine until authorities thought it was okay to fly again. Another option is they maintenance part and labor would be more readily available at their hub than abroad and there might have been additional cargo to bring as well. Lastly, they don't want to make additional stops and possibly pick up covid along the way either is a possibility.
I agree that currently the only options, unless it's really about life or death, is to continue to the destination or return to the departure point. Anything else is causing havoc of both pax and crew, potentially even replacement crew, and so on.