Red Letter Day for Garden City

Over the years Christchurch International Airport has severed as an alternative destination for wide body airliner's heading to Auckland. It is standard practice for an alternate to be planned in the event of unforeseen circumstances, especially to airports with single runways. 

There have been numerous occasions where multiple diversions have taken place however these events are now extremely rare especially with the advent of category III instrument landing system at Auckland allowing the majority of jet aircraft to operate in low visibility situations. 

However this landing aid was not match to the fierce weather conditions encountered across Auckland during the late afternoon of 06 July during the  international hub time of 1700. A line of slow moving thunderstorms with associated torrential downpours, medium sized hail and squally winds drifted aimlessly from the Tasman Sea and walloped the region for almost an hour swamping everything in its path. Multiple domestic jet and turboprop aircraft diverted to various destinations or returned to their point of origin.

Christchurch though was the recipient of no less than 7 wide body international diversions who, with limited ability to hold, were forced to divert south for fuel. 

Thanks to Tim Gorman for providing the following: