A United Airlines New Year's Day flight bound for San Francisco, which was diverted to Auckland after a passenger failed to listen to crew, is due to take-off again this afternoon.

Flight UA 870 departed Sydney at 1:14pm local time and was near Tonga when it was diverted to Auckland.

It landed approximately six hours later on New Year's Day evening - thousands of kilometres from the US city - and was expected to depart for its original destination at about 3:30 this afternoon.

A police spokeswoman said the man, a 42-year-old foreign national onboard flight UH870, was badly behaved and was arrested on arrival before being referred to Immigration.

One passenger seated three to four rows in front of him described the man, a Caucasian, as having allegedly gone into a verbally abusive, "racist rant".

Authorities boarded the aircraft when it landed and the passenger was removed from the aircraft.

United Airlines spokeswoman Erin Benson, said all 252 passengers were put up in hotels overnight.

The crew of four pilots and 11 flight attendants had to be given enough time to rest before the plane, a Boeing 787, could take off again today.