Auckland flights

Weekend flights by Pacific Blue between Auckland and Queenstown offer significant opportunities for business tourism in the resort, Destination Queenstown (DQ) says.

DQ chief executive Stephen Pahl and Queenstown Airport Corporation chief executive Steve Sanderson were asked to comment on the announcement yesterday the low-fare airline will introduce year-round Saturday and Sunday return flights between Auckland and Queenstown on September 19.

Mr Pahl said the weekend flights would boost business tourism, which includes company annual meetings, trade shows. conventions and other events.DQ staff attended Meetings 2009, a two-day conference and incentives trade show in Auckland in July.Their report indicated high interest in the resort as a business tourism destination and DQ would be talking with the carrier about ways to maximise the opportunities, Mr Pahl said.

The news of the domestic service ex Auckland will be complementary to the existing services to Queenstown. I hope over time those services can further develop with weekday services and I'm sure Pacific Blue would have that in their planning.Queenstown Airport will install an extra five Pacific Blue check-in desks, plus automated check-in counters and queueing provisions, in August and additional staff are being trained by the airline.

Mr Sanderson said the airport corporation was pleased Pacific Blue was introducing domestic services to Queenstown in September, as well as twice-weekly Sydney connections from September 5. Auckland has a third of New Zealand's population living there and clearly Pacific Blue is confident it could attract that market."

Queenstown will be Pacific Blue's fifth New Zealand domestic destination - the airline has been flying between Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch since November 2007 and added domestic Dunedin services in July 2008.Pacific Blue commercial general manager Adrian Hamilton-Manns said the addition of a domestic Queenstown service made sense, as the airline was already setting up at Queenstown for flights to Sydney.

The Boeing 737 flights are scheduled to depart Auckland at 11.45am on Saturdays and Sundays and arrive in Queenstown at 1.35pm. The return flights from Queenstown to Auckland will depart at 2.30pm and arrive in Auckland a