Government Plane Damaged, New Zealand Prime Minister 'picked Up' Commercial Aircraft

JAKARTA - The Air New Zealand (ANZ) plane, which is on a regular flight, must modify its route to pick up the country's prime minister, because the government aircraft it uses is having problems this week.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and a group of leading business leaders are on their way to Tokyo to attend a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

They traveled by Royal New Zealand Defense Force, which stopped at Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea to refuel, reported CNN June 18.

That's when the disaster occurred. The more than 30-year-old Boeing 757 aircraft experienced screen problems and was unable to continue their journey. PM Luxon's office confirmed the plane's damage to Reuters.

Fortunately, one of the 50 business leaders in the delegation was Air New Zealand (ANZ) CEO Greg Foran.

He then arranged an ANZ commercial flight departing from Auckland to Tokyo to stop at Port Moresby and pick up some of the displaced passengers, including PM Luxon, the airline confirmed to CNN.

Incidentally, PM Luxon, who was elected in 2023, spent seven years as CEO of Air New Zealand before entering politics.

New Zealand's Defense Minister capislatively Collins said the situation "embarrassed" in an interview with radio station Kiwi Newstalk ZB.

"We have a very old plane and we hope it will work like it just got out of the box and that won't happen," said Minister Collins.

"No PM wants to spend a lot of money on something some people think is good."

This is not the first time aircraft damage has left a New Zealand leader displaced. In 2022, then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was forced to spend additional time at Scott Base in Antarctica when the plane that was supposed to take him home had mechanical problems. He and his team finally got a ride on an Italian military jet.