Bags offloaded to make way for more fuel for first NY to AK flight

Air New Zealand's inaugural flight from New York to Auckland arrived this morning, minus many of the passengers' bags. 

Conducting the nearly 17 hour flight, covering more than 14,000 km, and spanning the Pacific Ocean meant a tradeoff had to be made between reaching the destination and carrying everyone's items. 

The airline's chief operating officer Alex Marren said extra fuel had to be loaded onboard due to "adverse weather" conditions they needed to fly around; and so some customers' bags were unable to make the journey.

RNZ reporter Lucy Xia spoke to Māni Dunlop from the airport.