Air New Zealand flights to Rarotonga were unaffected by a global tech outage that disrupted flights and other services worldwide, while Jetstar cancelled some flights but was working to rebook passengers.

The disruption was said to have been caused by a software update sent to cybersecurity company CrowdStrike from Austin, Texas, around the world on Thursday, causing chaos and disruption to flights, hospital services, and computers.

Yesterday morning, Jetstar’s JQ141/142 (Sydney-Rarotonga-Sydney) was cancelled due to the global network system outage.

In a statement yesterday morning, Jetstar said their IT systems were back up and running and the majority of their flights were planned to operate as scheduled.

Jetstar, while they apologised to customers whose flights were cancelled between Friday, July 19, and Saturday, July 20, said the global software issue impacted multiple Jetstar systems, including the system they use to communicate with customers.

“With our IT systems now back up and running, we have contacted everyone whose flight was cancelled with new flight options.”

An Air New Zealand media officer confirmed that: “There aren’t any disruptions to our Rarotonga services.”

In a statement, Air New Zealand’s Leanne Geraghty, chief customer and sales officer, said they would continue to monitor the situation closely over the weekend and would update customers if required.