July 14, 2010:
Jetstar announces its new twice-weekly Melbourne to Queenstown service begins on December 16, 2010. Its Gold Coast to Queenstown services begin on December 17, 2010. Jetstar also increases its services between Queenstown and Auckland, from daily to 11 times a week, effective from December 16, 2010.
June 25:
Pacific Blue launches first flight from Brisbane to Queenstown, with services on Fridays and Sundays until September 12, 2010. The flights add more than 3000 seats to the Queenstown market from Australia, for the June to September ski season. The flights are in addition to the airline's twice-weekly Sydney to Queenstown flights, which operate all year.
June 4:
Air New Zealand to add 180,000 seats to its services between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown and Dunedin, from September, 2010. The airline will increase domestic jet capacity by 4.2% and take the total number of services on its main trunk routes to more than 750 a week.
January 12:
Air New Zealand decides to increase capacity between Australia and Queenstown by 30% for the 2010 ski season, taking the total number of direct services to 13 a week. For the peak July and August periods, weekly return services from Sydney will increase from five to six, Melbourne from two to three and Brisbane from three to four. Flights from Auckland also increase by 30% over the same period, with four direct return services a day.
September 19, 2009:
Pacific Blue begins its year-round Saturday and Sunday return flights from Auckland to Queenstown.
September 5:
Pacific Blue launches its year-round twice-weekly Sydney to Queenstown service, on Tuesdays and Sundays.
June 26:
Air New Zealand announces the trialling of a weekly Brisbane-Queenstown service from mid-December, 2009 until the end of January 2010.
June 10:
Jetstar launches daily Auckland to Queenstown and Christchurch to Queenstown services. More than 2000 passengers are expected to travel in and out of Queenstown Airport each week.
Plane spotting at Queenstown
> Airport Air New Zealand uses Airbus A320 aircraft (150 seats) on international routes. The national carrier operates Boeing 737-300 aircraft (133 seats) and Aerospatiale ATR72 turbo-prop aircraft (68 seats) domestically.
> Jetstar flies Airbus A320 aircraft (177 seats) domestically and also internationally, from mid-December.
> Pacific Blue operates Boeing 737-800 (177 to 180 seats) domestically and internationally.
> Qantas uses Boeing 737-800 aircraft (168 seats ) on international routes.
