They couldn’t land in Australia?
How about Christchurch or Wellington? Do they have international airports?
The bigger question is why not diverted to one of the other New Zealand international airports.
I saw that!
They could, but there'd be severe visa problems for the passengers.
Maybe passenger visa Issues? Maybe NZ Airport closing information was sketchy. The flight was on a AB 380 so there may have been limited places for it land down under, etc..
Landing rights issue unless they were to declare an emergency. Also depending on the time of day there was a curfew in Sydney. Literally $1 million to land or depart during the curfew. My company a actually considered it once when they thought we were going to be late due to a maintenance issue.
Exactly!