Passengers on an Air New Zealand plane were unaware of the reason their plane made an unplanned stop on Monday, June 17 unknown to them that they were picking up the country’s prime minister after his government aircraft broke down.
New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and a group of prominent business leaders were en route to Tokyo for a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The entourage was travelling on a Royal New Zealand Defense Force plane, which stopped in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea to refuel. Then the unexpected happened as the plane, a Boeing 757 over 30 years old, had a fuse issue and couldn’t continue the journey.
Fortunately, one of the business leaders in the delegation was Air New Zealand (ANZ) CEO Greg Foran.
He made calls for an ANZ commercial flight traveling from Auckland to Tokyo to swing by Port Moresby and pick up some of the stranded passengers, including Luxon.
Coincidentally, Prime Minister Luxon, who was elected in 2023,…
Source: Linda Ikeji
