Originally Posted by
CargoOne
It is a typical story of long haul (ULH in this instance). Solution to land at Philly, EWR etc would suit most of the passengers on this particular flight better but the implications to the whole network will be there for a good 7 if not 14 days, with a good probability of making literally thousands of passengers unhappy. There is a general rule to try to isolate the problem where it is and carry on. One missed round trip (with airplane and crew in position) is way much better than a cascade of delays and cancellations. Same applies to rebookings - no ticketed pax will be denied boarding in AKL next day just because you have a full load of pax from yesterday's return awaiting their flight.
But what about the full load of passengers sitting in NY awaiting a flight to AKL where there is no aircraft now? Do they spread those passengers on either empty seats available for the next few day or re-book them on another carrier? I guess the real question is when will the airline industry get to using AI to help figure this all out. It's much more complicated than the average traveler realizes.