An emergency was declared on an Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch to Auckland.

 Chief Operational Integrity and Safety Officer Captain David Morgan said “during a flight from Christchurch to Auckland this morning, the flight crew of NZ5966 experienced an air conditioning fault with the aircraft.

“The flight was diverted to Nelson, where it landed safely just after 7am.

“As this service was a repositioning flight, there were no passengers onboard and just two pilots.

“Repositioning flights are common in order to get our crew and aircraft where they need to be and to realign our schedule.

The aircraft will now be assessed by our engineering and maintenance teams.”