Air New Zealand's Pradip Singh and Blair Gourdie at a business awards ceremony in 2012.

An Air New Zealand senior staff member has been rebuked after he compromised the safety of an international flight by not checking the weights of up to a third of its cargo before departure from Fiji for Auckland.

The employee admitted he put commercial priorities ahead of passenger safety.

A leaked internal Air New Zealand report obtained by Fairfax Media says the behaviour on October 11 "potentially compromised the safety of flight NZ057 and the flight crew and passengers on board".

The Boeing 777 flight could take up to 332 passengers.

The report also shows alarming practices at Nadi International Airport.

The incident involved Air New Zealand's South Pacific regional cargo boss based in Nadi, Pradip Singh, and the Fiji Government-owned Air Terminal Services (ATS) which service Air New Zealand.

Singh's decision to let the flight leave Nadi without checking the cargo weights has led to an employment review by one of his bosses, Auckland-based Blair Gourdie.

"These findings are of serious concern, because your actions had the potential to cause a significant weight discrepancy for the aircraft's weigh and balance requirements, which potentially compromised the safety of flight NZ057 and the flight crew and passengers on board," Gourdie wrote of Singh.

He says it was "a failure to follow the operational rules".

Later this evening Air New Zealand's general manager of cargo, Rick Nelson, issued a statement saying he was confident of the integrity of the airline's global cargo operation.

"While the safety of this flight was not compromised, there was a clear breach of normal process on this occasion and we take this matter very seriously," he said in the statement.

"As well as reporting this incident to the Civil Aviation Authority Air New Zealand has conducted a thorough review and has taken the appropriate steps to address this matter with the staff member involved and our ground handling agent in Nadi."

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that the airline had notified it of the incident. CAA was satisfied that the aircraft was within weight and balance limitations and the "flight was conducted safely".

In a 12-page report, Gourdie recommends a "final written warning" to Singh.

He says that on October 11 ATS had to load 13 unit load devices or containers onto the Boeing. But equipment used by ATS broke down and there was no way to check the weights of 11 containers.

ATS telephoned Singh, who was on a golf course, and he told them to trust the air weigh bill given by the shippers, which give weights.

This is against civial aviation rules and airline policy, and Gourdie said it was a serious matter and could lead to dismissal.

The flight left the terminal at 1.16pm with just over 27 tonnes of cargo. Some of it was bound for trans-shiping to Australia, and live reef fish for London.

Just under an hour into the three-hour flight to Auckland, ATS advised Air New Zealand in Auckland to check the weights of the cargo as it had not done so.

Gourdie's report says Cargo Operations in Auckland soon after expressed concern that what Nadi had done was a "safety risk to all people involved with the flight".

Singh defended his actions, saying that he did not know what he would do with the 27 tonnes of cargo, 20 tonnes of which was perishable.

"You said that if you held back the perishable cargo everything would go rotten," the report noted.

He said this would mean letting down the shippers and agents - who would then lose confidence in Air New Zealand.

He said based on previous statistics from other flights, he trusted the waybill weights.

The report says the ATS equipment was old, had no backups, and its systems had gone down before.

Singh told the investigation that cargo may have travelled before without being checked "and that you were honest enough and requested ATS to inform (Air New Zealand) to re-weigh the units before they get uplifted (in Auckland)."

Gourdie in his report checked with the shipping agents involved.

Ram Corporate Freight Services told him ATS were "poor with their process and procedures" and that standards had gone backward.

"The local attitude can come into play and that could lead to slips in process and procedures," Gourdie reported.

One of Fiji's oldest agents, Williams Gosling, were quoted saying it had concerns over ATS because of its staff numbers and being a monopoly.

It said it had sent taro to New Zealand a number of times and it had not been weighed: "To us that means they didn't weigh them."

It added ATS put the wrong shipments on planes "quite a bit in the last 6 months".

Gourdie said in his finding that Singh was worried at the "commercial implications" of leaving the cargo behind.

"The safety of the aircraft should be non-negotiable and at the forefront of any decisions that you make when it comes to the operation of the aircraft," Gourdie said.

Singh was fully aware of the operational rules but Gourdie added there was no malicious intentions.

"It is my view that (you) placed more emphasis on the commercial impacts of losing revenue rather than on the safety aspects of the aircraft," Gourdie says.

"Although I accept that you are sorry and are genuinely remorseful for the decision that you took on the day, this does not detract from the significant lack of judgement you have shown by allowing an aircraft to operate without cargo check weight procedures taking place."

He found that Singh broke Civil Aviation rules and company policy.

"The surrounding circumstances that you were called while at a golf tournament and customer event may have been an influence and distraction but should not interfere with the suggestions you made to ATS and to the overall obligations you have of the safety of the aircraft."

After saying the actions were of serious concern that could have compromised the aircraft safety, Gourdie said he found Singh's actions amount to "serious misconduct".

He considered summary dismissal but took into consideration 24 years of service with Air New Zealand.

This, he said, was "a one-off event".

"I have also taken into consideration that you have shown real remorse and you have been very clear that you have made a mistake suggesting the course of action you did to ATS on the day."