Many US long-haul flights have been cancelled or diverted due to a power failure at New York’s JFK airport.
The airport confirmed overnight that Terminal 1 will remain closed today (Friday).
An Air New Zealand flight turned around to return to Auckland leaving passengers 16 hours in the air because of disruption at JFK, CNN reported.
And Lufthansa warned that flights from Germany had been diverted to other airports on the US east coast.
JFK said some arriving flights were sent to airports including Newark, Boston and Washington.
The terminal is not used to handle flights by UK carriers British Airways and Virgin Atlantic or main US carriers such as American Airlines and United.
Carriers using Terminal 1 at JFK include Norse Atlantic Airways, Air France, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways, Japan Airlines, TAP Air Portugal and Turkish Airlines.
The airport said on Twitter: “A power outage at JFK Terminal 1 is impacting the terminal’s ability to accept inbound and outbound flights. We are working to accommodate impacted flights using other terminals.
“The power outage was caused by an electrical panel failure, which also caused a small isolated fire overnight that was immediately extinguished.”
It confirmed that JFK Terminal 1 will remain closed today due to “electrical issues” as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey continues working with the terminal’s operator to restore flight operations “as quickly as possible”.
Travellers were urged to check with their carriers for flight status before going to the airport.