A bomb scare at Invercargill airport this afternoon has led to an arrest being made by police. 

The airport was shut down after a person made a false threat about "a bomb in a bag".

A police spokesperson said police were called to an incident at Invercargill Airport and were assisting Aviation Security.

“The airport was evacuated as a precaution and nothing of concern was located. One person was arrested.”

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The airport has now re-opened, but the closure has meant several flights have been delayed. 

Invercargill Airport manager Nigel Finnerty said even though the threat turned out to be a “joke”, he takes such comments very seriously.

“A person made a mention of a bomb in a bag… which turned out to be a joke.”

“We take anything like that really seriously. making a joke about those sorts of things… it’s not something you want to do in an aviation environment in particular.”

He said as soon as airport staff were made aware of the comment, staff swiftly put emergency procedures into place, evacuated the terminal and called the police.

Mr Finnerty said the airport was closed from around 12pm to about 1pm.

On a positive note, Mr Finnerty said today’s event showed that the airport emergency systems work as they should.

“You have these processes in place and it’s always good when they work as planned,” he said. 

Operations at the airport are now back to normal and all delayed flights have now taken off. 

Janine Moffat, who manages bookings for Stewart Island Flights, said the company had to delay around eight flights due to the closure. 

“They just came in and said the terminal was shutting down due to a bomb scare…” she said.

“[It’s] just a little bit of an inconvenience,” she said. But luckily the flights have been able to be rescheduled for later today.

An Air New Zealand spokesperson said two Air NZ flights out of Invercargill airport were disrupted today, but both flights have now taken off.

Invercargill Airport manager Nigel Finnerty has been approached for comment.