Information of  TTFly: Melbourne-bound passengers leaving Wellington had to be put on another Qantas plane after their one was hit by a truck.

The airline on Wednesday morning confirmed the incident, which happened on the tarmac in Wellington on Tuesday night.

The 130 passengers on board were taken off the plane, and put on another one which had to be brought down from Auckland.

A worker was hospitalised with minor injuries but released shortly afterwards.

The stationary 737 plane was hit by a ground handling truck, the statement said.

The aircraft was due to operate flight QF172 from Wellington to Melbourne with a scheduled departure of 5:00 p.m.

A new plane, brought down from Auckland wher it was meant to be parked up for the night, left Wellington at 9:50 p.m. - almost three hours after the scheduled leaving time.

The damaged plane remained on the tarmac at Wellington on Wednesday morning.

A Qantas spokeswoman said there was minor damage to the underside of the 737 and engineers were still examining it on Wednesday.

She could not say how long the plane would be grounded but said no more flights would be affected.

A Wellington Airport spokesman said Civil Aviation Authority and WorkSafe had been notified.

The vehicle that hit the truck was contracted to Qantas.

A CAA spokesman said the situation was being dealt with by WorkSafe, wher a spokeswoman confirmed it had been notified and "follow-up inquiries" were underway.

She refused to comment further,