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Air New Zealand will restart its Wellington to Queenstown route on 28 May and add additional flights between Auckland and Queenstown due to strong demand.
The move comes days after it added Taupo and Timaru to its Alert Level 2 network, and will be seen as an encouraging sign customers are ready to fly again.
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Last week, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that, from Thursday, Kiwis could travel around the country and meet friends and family for the first time in weeks.
Air New Zealand general manager networks Scott Carr said, “We’ve been sufficiently encouraged by demand for seats into Queenstown since publishing our schedule for Alert Level 2 that we’re bringing forward the resumption of services from Wellington.”
The airline will operate a daily return service between Wellington and Queenstown between 28 May and 2 June, as well as a daily return service on 5 June and 7 June using its A320.
From 12 June, it will then operate three return Wellington-Queenstown A320 services a week on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
However, the airline has previously warned passengers that the flying experience will be significantly different to before the pandemic began.
To encourage social distancing, every second self-service kiosk will be closed, floor markings will be in operation in queues and aircraft will fly at about 20 per cent capacity with the middle seat kept free.
There's nothing quite like the feeling of flight. Here's to getting back above the clouds 🌥 #AvGeek pic.twitter.com/A0QLbJCMck
— Air New Zealand (@FlyAirNZ) May 18, 2020
Air New Zealand’s in-flight magazine, Kia Ora, won’t be available, while food and beverage and lounge access will remain suspended until 25 May.
“We’re keen to bring more New Zealanders to Queenstown and to boost the tourism industry in particular. The requirement for physical distancing on our services does mean that we need to also see strong demand for seats in both directions, so we hope that the additional services will also cater to Queenstown locals looking to travel north,” said Carr.
ALERT LEVEL TWO ANZ NETWORK
Auckland to/from
- Taupo
- Blenheim
- Dunedin
- Rotorua
- Christchurch
- Gisborne
- Kerikeri
- Napier
- Nelson
- New Plymouth
- Palmerston North
- Tauranga
- Wellington
- Whangarei
- Queenstown
Christchurch to/from
- Hamilton
- Hokitika
- Tauranga
- Dunedin
- Invercargill
- Nelson
- Palmerston North
- Wellington
- Queenstown
Wellington to/from
- Queenstown
- Timaru
- Dunedin
- Blenheim
- Gisborne
- Hamilton
- Napier
- Nelson
- New Plymouth
- Rotorua
- Tauranga
