A plane from Tonga has landed in Auckland after a volcanic plume near the kingdom's capital interrupted flights for three days.
And the problems caused by the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai undersea volcano appear to be over, with only residual sulphur dioxide left in the air, Civil Aviation Authority chief meteorological officer Peter Lechner said.
The Virgin Australia additional service left Sydney for Tonga's capital Nuku'alofa on Wednesday morning, and arrived in Auckland at 5.30pm.
A spokeswoman for the company said flights to and from the island nation were now operating as normal, and affected customers had been fed and put up in hotels while they waited.
The successful flight came just hours after an Air New Zealand flight to Tonga was forced to return to Auckland after another pilot flying near the destination airport smelled sulphur dioxide which can cause breathing difficulties for passengers and crew on the aeroplane.
An Air New Zealand flight departed from Auckland just before 5pm on Wednesday headed for the capital.
Some domestic flights have continued as normal despite the ash.
Mr Lechner told AAP the ash which had put holiday plans on hold had now gone.
Flights should now be operating as usual - unless the volcano erupted again, he said.
Volcanic ash "can get into the engines and basically stop the engines, but it can also get into all sorts of other parts of the aeroplane and cause critical problems".
"We have had ash getting into fuel switching systems and causing the fuel supply to stop," he said.
The volcano - which is 60km from the capital - began erupting in late December, but only began causing problems for airlines this week when the wind direction changed sending the plume towards the capital.
Source: AAP
