Flying start for Queenstown Airport

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Queenstown Airport staff (from left) terminal operations manager Aideen Tinney, with Daniel Dodd and Kathryn Jolly (help desk), accountant Darren Auld, Orla Nic Carthaigh (help desk), acting corporate general manager Mark Woodward and chief executive Scott Paterson in front of the decorated Christmas tree in the terminal last week. Photo by James Beech.

Queenstown Airport staff are prepared for their busiest summer season, with a 17% increase in passengers predicted for January.

Air New Zealand is increasing its capacity between Queenstown and Auckland by 32% and Jetstar is adding an extra Queenstown-Sydney flight and another

Queenstown-Melbourne flight, taking its frequency to seven international services a week and an additional 37,000 international seats annually.

The airport's latest passenger numbers show domestic passengers increased by 18.4% to 77,176 in November compared with the same month last year.

International passenger numbers rose 17.5% to 12,194 for November 2012 compared with the previous November.

The overall increase in the number of passengers was 18.3% for November compared with November last year.