A REASON FOR THE REFUSAL New Zealand fines airline

Posted on 04/22/2016

It's really quite unbelievable in this day and age that an airline person would do this, but they did.  An employee of a South American airline was trying to book a ticket for a Brazilian passenger going to New Zealand. The first time the name was put in, the system responded with a DO NOT BOARD directive - not much of a surprise in that the passenger had previously been refused entry into New Zealand. The Latam Airlines staff member tried four more times - finally using a different spelling of the name which was then accepted by the system and a ticket was issued.

Approval for an airline to send a passenger to New Zealand is obtained through Immigration New Zealand’s (INZ) Advance Passenger Processing (APP) system, which advises airlines whether a passenger is allowed to board or not. 

The passenger flew to Auckland but was removed from the country on the same day. 

Latam Airlines has been prosecuted and fined NZ $9,000 ($7,900) at Manukau District Court for failing to comply with the airline’s obligation under the Immigration Act 2009. The fine could have been up to $50,000 ($43,896). 

Immigration New Zealand national border manager Sente Jehle spoke of the offence of ignoring an alert to stop someone from entering a country, “INZ takes this type of offending very seriously as airlines have a crucial role to play in maintaining the integrity of New Zealand’s immigration system and keeping the border secure.” 

She added, “We work very closely with airlines to help this happen and it’s very disappointing that we’ve had to take prosecution action.”