The low-fare Qantas subsidiary announced to the Queenstown Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday it would launch twice-weekly services from the Gold Coast and Melbourne to Queenstown from mid-December.
Destination Queenstown chief executive Tony Everitt asked Jetstar chief executive Bruce Buchanan, of Melbourne, if the new Gold Coast link could present opportunities for the resort to rebuild its snowsports market out of Japan, which had been in decline for some time.
Mr Buchanan said building the Japanese market was the vision of the Gold Coast services.
"The opportunity to really build frequency on that route is getting Japanese visitors coming through it.
"We're bringing 600 Japanese tourists a day into the Gold Coast, so the opportunity for us to tap into a section of that and bring that to Queenstown is strong."
The carrier operates daily year-round flights between Tokyo and the Gold Coast, plus Osaka to the Gold Coast, chamber members heard. Japanese connections make up 20% to 30% of the traffic of Jetstar's Auckland to Gold Coast services.
"I think the ski market in Japan is very good and you just have to look at the number of Japanese who go to Whistler every year to see the opportunity of bringing the Japanese market here," Mr Buchanan said.
Some 60% of cities between Australia and Japan are serviced by the airline and New Zealand as a package gave it more clout in Japan.
After Mr Buchanan's announcement, chamber chairman Alistair Porter said the ability to bring Japanese visitors to Queenstown, via the Gold Coast, was "fantastic".
NZSki chief executive James Coddington said he welcomed the potential for more business from Japan.
"It provides an opportunity which we will certainly be looking at. The beauty of it is, there's already a blueprint for our relationship with Jetstar in Australia; it's been very successful.
"We'd be looking to partner with Jetstar and strengthen their brand in the market and explore opportunities. That's great for us and great for Queenstown."
The Japanese market used take up more than 20% of NZSki's business in the 1980s and 1990s, but it was less than 1% today, Mr Coddington said.
"A whole lot of factors have contributed to that decline. Their economy had a big impact, but also the accessibility into Queenstown and it wasn't affordable ...
"To have accessibility and affordability options for them will definitely open up opportunities and hopefully increase visitorship."
Mr Coddington said there was a capacity limit from a ski perspective, but NZSki had invested more than $100 million over eight years to try to build on the capacity.
"We'll be looking at what we can do to continue to expand our capacity on both our skifields."
Mr Everitt said an advantage of the new flights was Queenstown would become more accessible to long-haul visitors.
"For example, Japanese holidaymakers will be able to fly one stop from Japan to Queenstown via the Gold Coast.
"Jetstar has built a significant position in the Japanese market so these flights alone present a great opportunity for us to rebuild visitor numbers."
