Luxon's office said he switched to an early morning scheduled flight out of Wellington, because of a last-minute technical problem with the New Zealand Defence Force Boeing 757 plane he had been scheduled to take.

Luxon's party had to transfer to a flight on Air New Zealand, the company he led for seven years as chief executive before switching to politics.

The prime minister was flying to Melbourne to attend meetings with leaders of Southeast Asian nations and the host country on the sidelines of the ASEAN-Australia summit.

This is not the first time there have been concerns about the reliability of defence force planes transporting New Zealand officials.

A back-up Boeing 757 was used for a trip to China last year in case of a break down when then-prime minister Chris Hipkins led a delegation to Beijing. As leader of the opposition at the time, Luxon had criticised the move.

ryj/mlm

BOEING

Air New Zealand