Queenstown's first commercial evening flight is scheduled to land this month, after Air New Zealand's first ‘‘proving flight'' was hailed a success.
The Saturday night flight was the first of several planned before the May 23 flight from Auckland to Queenstown, scheduled to arrive at 6.15pm and return to Auckland at 6.50pm.
The airline's full evening schedule takes effect from July 3, when the last departure from Queenstown will be 7.30pm and the last arrival at 9.35pm.
Jetstar will launch its evening services from Melbourne on June 24.
The inaugural international night flight is scheduled to land in the resort at 7.20pm.
Air New Zealand chief flight operations and safety officer Captain David Morgan described the introduction of evening flights to Queenstown as ‘‘a milestone for New Zealand aviation''.
‘‘We're proud to be the first airline to offer this service to customers which is sure to bring significant benefits to the Central Otago economy through the additional flights.''
Capt Morgan said the airline had worked with Queenstown Airport Corporation, the Civil Aviation Authority and Airways New Zealand to prepare for night operations, which had included introducing the Runway Overrun Protection System (ROPS) technology on board.
That technology is an alerting system which reduces exposure to runway overrun risk, and if necessary, provides active protection.
It complemented the existing head-up display already fitted to the A320 aircraft.
Last week, the $1.65million airfield lighting project at Queenstown Airport was tested by Airways for the first time.
The work, which included the installation or repositioning of about 200 lights, including precision approach path indicator lights, touchdown approach, runway centreline, runway edge and threshold lights, was part of a $19.6million runway infrastructure upgrade, which had included widening the runway to 45m.
●Changeable wind posed problems at Queenstown Airport yesterday. Queenstown Airport Corporation communications manager Jen Andrews said three aircraft apparently missed their approaches into the resort yesterday morning but all landed safely ‘‘after a go-round''.
She said the problems occurred because of wind changing direction.