Virgin Australia lands first after-dark flight in time for Winter Festival
23 Jun 2017
Virgin Australia's first after-dark flight to Queenstown landed tonight (23 June) in time for passengers to enjoy an action-packed long weekend at the resort town's annual Winter Festival.
VA118 arrived from Brisbane at 20:20 and took off for its return flight at 21:15.
Queenstown Airport Chief Executive Colin Keel said that the new services were great news for the region.
"The introduction of evening flights last winter gave visitors more choice and flexibility when visiting this spectacular part of the world.
“We saw a great uptake by Australians in the evening flights offered from Melbourne, with people coming here to make the most of the extended operating hours, staying and skiing for longer.
“The addition of Sydney and Brisbane to the evening flight options means even more people can jump on a flight Friday afternoon in Brisbane, head night skiing and still have another two full days on the mountains before flying home on Sunday evening. This helps increase length of stay in the region which benefits a number of businesses in the community."
Last winter, 79% of Queenstown Airport’s trans-Tasman passengers were Australian and half were Australians under 35 years old. For the period June to August 2016, international passenger numbers were 162,506, an increase of 6% year on year (152,967).