Queenstown Airport will welcome the first domestic flight by Jetstar in and out of Otago on Wednesday.
The low-cost Australian airline will land an Airbus A320, which can carry 177 passengers, from Auckland at the airport at 10.50am.
Jetstar commercial executive manager David Koczkar and the first flight captain, to be announced, will join Queenstown Airport chief executive Steve Sanderson and Destination Queenstown chief executive Stephen Pahl there.
The flight will leave for Christchurch at 11.20am.
Mr Pahl will take part in the TRENZ (Tourism Rendezvous New Zealand) industry conference in Auckland this week, but said he would be on the first flight to show DQ's support for the new service and then fly back to the conference.
Mr Pahl said it was hard to quantify the benefits Jetstar would bring to Queenstown. However, the introduction of the services was "an extremely positive development".
"Jetstar is a subsidiary of Qantas so not only is it very positive to have them operating domestically, they will bring the added benefits of existing transtasman connections through Christchurch."
Mr Sanderson said for an airport it was always great to see a new airline and Queenstown Airport welcomed Jetstar "particularly in today's economic environment".
"Jetstar is relatively a new airline.
"And although a subsidiary of Qantas, they have their own business model and people, and that brings a new approach and target markets that the Lakes District will benefit from."
Mr Sanderson said Jetstar had its own dedicated check-in desks at the airport and its own baggage handling ground crew named Skycare.
Jetstar's domestic New Zealand services, frequencies and one-way fares are on the airline's website.
Everyday low fares are from $59, one-way, to Queenstown from Christchurch, and Auckland from $89.
Jetstar chief Bruce Buchanan will be the guest speaker at the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce business luncheon the same day in the Wakatipu Room of the Skyline Gondola.
Mr Buchanan said in a statement the new services would include daily direct return flights from Auckland and Christchurch to Queenstown.
The airline had already experienced strong demand on those routes, with particularly high interest for travel from Auckland, he said.
