Air NZ to stop Mt Cook flights

Air NZ is stopping scheduled flights to Mt Cook from January 14 after declining tourism numbers. The airline, which once ran daily flights to the mountain as a stopover between Christchurch and Queenstown, has flown a more flexible service over recent months as the heavily Japanese-weighted tourism traffic slowed after September 11.

Regional rival Origin Pacific is considering taking over the service, using smaller planes than Air NZ's 66-seater ATR72 turboprops.