Air New Zealand’s recent flight cancellation left several overseas Filipino workers in Cook Island in a lurch.
A recruitment firm bringing Filipino workers from the Cook Islands said that passengers received cancellation emails offering only refunds or credits, and no alternative travel options from Air New Zealand.
FRENZ general manager Tammy Hendricks said the emails were received on November 3 for flights two days later.
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Afterwards, “the website showed only one remaining flight for the rest of the year” the official said, adding there was no reason given for cancellations.
Hendricks said they had three travellers with the cancelled flights and “another eight also wanting to come into [the] country this year.”
“Given that any of the flights between the 5th and the 11th and then for the rest of the year had also disappeared, it was a frightening experience.”
The migrant workers have been in the Cook Islands since the pandemic last year and were struggling to make ends meet. Some had been in Rarotonga for five or more years, and were coming to New Zealand to take farm jobs while the “one-way bubble was open.”
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However, Air New Zealand said it had been flying from Rarotonga to Auckland once a week since the bubble was suspended in August. The air carrier further said that it had offered only weekly flights since August as there were not enough passengers for daily flights.
Hendricks said she booked tickets for November 5 and after the flights were cancelled it took four days before weekly flights started showing again online except for one on November 11.
The two-way bubble for vaccinated travellers is due to reopen from January 14. It had initially started in May this year and then closed for New Zealanders travelling to Rarotonga on August 17. (AW)
