Air NZ pilot misses his own flight

Passengers on an Air New Zealand flight were left waiting for hours when their pilot didn't turn up after misreading his roster.

An Air New Zealand pilot has missed his flight, leaving hundreds of international travellers stranded on the tarmac waiting for him to arrive.

An early morning flight from Auckland to Singapore was delayed for hours on Monday after the pilot confused the time and failed to turn up before the airport shut down for scheduled runway maintenance.

Air New Zealand confirmed the pilot made an error reading his roster.

"By the time the mistake was established we were unable to get this crew member or a standby crew member to the airport prior to the runway closure and had to wait until it reopened to depart," a spokesperson said on Tuesday.

"The crew member understandably feels incredibly embarrassed about what was clearly a genuine mistake."

Air New Zealand said they've tweaked their roster timings and crew are now required to turn up a few minutes before midnight rather than after to avoid mix-ups.