Wellington airport airbridge
 

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/passengers-stuck-in-plane-on-the-tarmac-in-wellington-longer-than-the-length-of-their-flight/CN2ZFFY3IGZ7LOJI4FLUFQQLHY/
we also (NZ433) had problems with the airbridge too (yesterday)

I'm confused, does Wellington not have stairs?

I've been on a few flights before where the Jetbridge wasn't cooperating but minutes later some stairs were rolled up and disembarking started from the rear. You'd hope Air NZ could think out of the box a little more in situations like this instead of making people wait a whole hour for a fix.

It depends on the gate not all gates have the facilities to get passengers from the apron to The arrivals area. Do they still have the bus, which they use when turbo props arrived at the end of the C South West pier?

Thinking back to yesterday think the weather was fine. As additionally in some wind & gate combinations stairs are unsafe (they blow over) (seen photos).

This can happen anywhere. I had a similar experience at CHC a few weeks ago. Apparently our flight was the first one to use the particular airbridge for a year. No other airbridges were available due to all the aircraft parked up while AKL was in level 3. Unlike the 2020 lockdowns they'd decided to leave the parked up aircraft at gates rather than at remote stands.

Had something similar happen in WLG, pre-Covid, where we were waiting a while for a gate, then a while for a gate operator, then the gate broke, then waited for stairs and then eventually were changed to a free gate. Of course this was peak time on a Monday morning, with lots of people on their phones pushing back meetings, etc. It is the sort of thing which happens from time to time.

Yeah, had the bus last month on CHC-WLG on an ATR-72.

First time ever at WLG, but was routine at BKK.

It does feel like the pandemic has hit the WLG R&M hard over the last 12 months. Very little works seems to have been done (apart from the AVSEC upgrade). The fact that old VA adverts are still up everywhere at WLG show.

Those NZ domestic air bridges must be getting near the end of there use able life soon. They would be at least 20 years old, and spent there life in an very harsh environment.

I love that I they still have an light on them for the 146s...