Queues were out the door of the airport as Air New Zealand tried to clear a backlog of flights today.
Some people say they’ve been trying to get home for days and struggled to find shelter because the resort was packed.
The national airline faces high demand during school holidays, staff illness due to Covid-19 and weather-related disruptions.
Up to 130 flights were canceled on Thursday and Friday due to stormy conditions.
The airline warned at the start of the July school holidays that more than usual sick employees and bad weather could cause delays.
Tony Versey, from Auckland, said he and his wife were originally scheduled to fly home from Queenstown on Thursday evening.
That flight was canceled and he was offered a Friday morning flight, but he told Air New Zealand staff he was relatively flexible and was rescheduled for this morning.
When he arrived at Queenstown Airport at 8am today, there was a line out the door and the check-in machines were not working. After an hour of waiting, he found that their flight had been canceled again and they were directed to the information desk.
“Of course there is already a line halfway down the hall, literally. I think it took us three and a half hours to finally be at the front of that line.”
They were given the option to take the bus to Dunedin, then fly to Wellington tomorrow and on to Auckland – with the caveat that flights may be affected by Covid-19. They chose a second option, flying straight home on Tuesday evening.
“I’m not very confident that will even happen,” he said.
Versey said they were well looked after by the airline, with a $250 lodging voucher and a $100 a day food voucher and $300 worth of travel vouchers. The staff were friendly despite the intense pressure on them, he said.
Another Aucklander traveler said she was stranded at the airport with her partner and two children after their flight was cancelled.
“Children have to go back to high school tomorrow. There is no accommodation, no rental cars, we have been here for an hour and a half and still waiting for help.”
It wasn’t just Queenstown that was hit by flight disruptions.
James Gaunt, an Auckland businessman, said he was struggling to get staff back from Christchurch.
Two of his employees had canceled flights and he had not been able to find new flights for them.
“They have a child to care for tomorrow, and they’re up and running, and they don’t have a ticket for the next few days.”
Air New Zealand’s website shows there are no direct flights available on that route tomorrow and flights for Tuesday sold out quickly.
Gaunt wondered why the airline continued to schedule a large number of flights, but canceled many of them with little notice. He estimated that 30 to 40 percent of flights were canceled each day.
“Every day is the same. They sell hourly tickets to Christchurch and back,” he said.
“But so many flights are canceled every day. I’m just trying to get the staff back home to their families – it’s a nightmare. I have no idea what I’m going to do for them.”