Passengers left behind on beleaguered new Auckland-New York nonstop flight

The landmark new route has been plagued by weather and fuel issues

The flight from New York to New Zealand is one of the longest in the world (Getty Images)

Fifteen passengers were offloaded from one of Air New Zealand’s first flights on a landmark route from New York to New Zealand.

Passengers waiting to board the flight, which departed Sunday, were asked to volunteer to take a later, alternative service.

The airline’s non-stop flight from NYC to Auckland launched on 17 September, becoming the world’s fourth longest route - but its first few services have been fraught with problems.

On the first departure of the thrice-weekly route, around 65 passengers were left without their luggage after a decision was made to offload some bags due to weight concerns. The airline said this was due to adverse weather conditions along the route.

Then on Friday, the flight crew warned passengers that they would need to make a stop to refuel in Fiji due to “unusually strong winds”. As weather conditions improved, the aircraft did not make the stop in the end.

On Sunday, it followed with the decision to offload 15 passengers in order to take on more fuel and avoid the risk of another refuelling stop.

The flight - from New York to Auckland - is currently the fourth-longest flight in the world. It covers 8,828 miles and has a scheduled flight time of 17 hours and 35 minutes.

The flight is operated by a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner and includes 27 business class seats, 33 premium economy seats, and 215 economy seats.

Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer David Morgan told RNZ’s Morning Report that the airline had been undertaking "detailed planning" for the past twelve months.

This has included coming up with the flight’s "payload" – how much weight is available for passengers and their baggage once the weight of the fuel has been deducted.

However, over the past week, he said there were "significantly" stronger headwinds on the route than those planned for.

"That’s the problem, the forecasts we based our assumptions on... have proven to be inaccurate," he said.

Tailwinds can help a plane travel faster and save on fuel. However, headwinds work in the opposite way, slowing a plane down and requiring it to use more fuel.

Air New Zealand is faced with either taking fewer passengers or less fuel (meaning it would potentially need to make a stop mid-way to refuel).

Mr Morgan explained: "As a consequence of that, the flight is taking longer and in order to be able to provide the fuel load, we’ve had to reduce the payload."

The Independent has contacted Air New Zealand for comment.

Meanwhile this isn’t the first time an Air New Zealand flight hasn’t gone quite as planned.

In July an Air New Zealand flight from Christchurch to Shanghai made a 13-hour “trip to nowhere” after the plane did a U-turn midway through the journey.

The cargo-only flight departed Christchurch on 1 July, only to divert to Auckland and land around 13 hours after take off.