Air New Zealand said three of its flights were delayed. (File photo)

A drone seen in Evans Bay led to Wellington Airport closing airspace for 30 minutes, delaying flights.

A spokeswoman for Airways NZ, which provided air traffic control services, said at 6.32pm, an aircraft that was arriving into Wellington International Airport spotted the drone at about 200 metres in altitude, less than three kilometres from the end of the runway.

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"That is extremely close to the airfield and well within the control zone."

MARTIN DE RUYTER/STUFF A drone was spotted near Evans Bay in Wellington. (File photo)

Pilots on the ground were able to see the drone, and continued to be able to see it for 23 minutes, she said.

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The drone was seen in the Evans Bay Parade area. Police were called and they went to the scene.

ROSA WOODS/STUFF A spokeswoman for Airways NZ, which provided air traffic control services, said at 6.32pm, an aircraft that was arriving into Wellington International Airport spotted the drone at about 200 metres in altitude, less than three kilometres from the end of the runway.

A police media spokeswoman said police received a report of a drone being flown in the airspace around the airport at 6.45pm.

Flights delayed at Wellington Airport after drone spotted ...felt like a lot longer than 10 minuteshttps://t.co/Y76e1QvN1c — Annabel Young (@AyeAye111) November 11, 2018

Inquiries were made and no-one was located, she said.

The airspace was closed for 30 minutes and normal operations resumed about 7.10pm, Airways NZ said.

JOHN NICHOLSON/STUFF The drone was spotted near Evans Bay Parade.

About 10 flights were delayed as a result of the incident.

Wellington Airport spokesman Greg Thomas said air traffic was held up because the tower spotted the drone nearby.

"My understanding is the police went to assist with that, but it was only a very temporary hold."

Passenger Wiremu Bayliss said he was due to depart his Air New Zealand flight NZ 452 at 6.45pm, headed to Auckland, however the flight was delayed by 10 minutes.

"We had taxied out to the runway, endured the new annoying safety video and had gone up the north end of the runway behind another Airbus plane, got about parallel with the observation area when we stopped," Bayliss said.

"That's when the captain came on and said a drone had been spotted and expect about a 9-minute delay.

"After that as the first jet took off and we rounded the corner I could see at least 3 maybe 4 Air New Zealand turbo props behind us and a Sounds Air turbo prop also coming up, so it did create quite a traffic jam."

An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said its jet fleet was unaffected, however two regional flights were delayed arriving into Wellington, and one was delayed departing.

A Jetstar Airways spokeswoman said as far as she was aware, none of its flights were affected by the delay.

A Civil Aviation Authority spokeswoman said they couldn't comment as it hadn't been formally notified of the incident yet.