Air New Zealand announces additional Tasman services for Queenstown

Air New Zealand today announced further additions to its Tasman schedule into and out of Queenstown, including the launch of a new weekly Brisbane-Queenstown summer service.

Deputy CEO Norm Thompson said today at the Queenstown Winter Festival Tourism Forum that Air New Zealand was working hard to increase the number of Australian tourists it brought into the region.

In particular, he said Air New Zealand hoped to capitalise on the strong demand from Queenslanders in Queenstown with the introduction of a direct summer service.

“I’m pleased to announce today that we’ll be trialling a weekly Brisbane-Queenstown service in peak summer months, which will operate from mid-December through to the end of January.”

Mr Thompson said Queenstown was arguably New Zealand’s fastest-growing destination for Australian visitors, as a result of continual increases in direct services across the Tasman.

“Over the peak winter season Air New Zealand now operates10 direct services a week compared to three five years ago. This year, as a result of strong demand from Queensland, we added an additional service from Brisbane taking the total from there to three per week, in addition to five services per week from Sydney and two from Melbourne.”

Mr Thompson said the airline intended extending its Melbourne-Queenstown schedule, which currently operates once a week in December and January, right through to the end of March.

“In addition, we will continue to operate two trips per week on the Sydney-Queenstown route from mid-October to the end of November, where previously over this period there was a seasonal reduction to one trip per week. These services will operate Tuesday and Saturdays.”

Mr Thompson expected the schedule additions would be welcomed by the region, and illustrated Air New Zealand’s confidence in the Australian market’s ability to deliver solid economic returns to Queenstown.

Schedules for the additional services (subject to final confirmation and regulatory approvals):

06 Oct - 15 Dec
SYD-ZQN 1000/1455
ZQN-SYD 1605/1720

20 Dec - 31 Jan
BNE-ZQN 0820/1450
ZQN-BNE 1550/1635

6 Feb – 27 Mar
MEL-ZQN 0640/1155
ZQN-MEL 1255/1435