Air New Zealand opens new Nelson Airport lounge - complete with liquor licence

Air New Zealand has opened its latest new lounge and it has its liquor licence sorted.

The new lounge in Nelson has almost twice the capacity of the previous one at the fast-growing airport.

The lounge will cater for around 130 customers and has almost double the seating of the previous space.

It is located on Level 1 of the new Nelson Airport terminal and has a number of different zones available to customers – including a café, buffet and light refreshments, a self-service drinks station, as well as business, lounge and quiet areas.

It is part of a $60 million investment in lounges throughout New Zealand over the next two years. Air New Zealand general manager of customer experience Nikki Goodman said the new lounge has impressive views overlooking the runway and to the mountains.

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"We look forward to welcoming our customers to this impressive and significantly larger space in the new state-of-the art terminal at Nelson Airport and it's great to have it up and running before Christmas."

The airline this week admitted an embarrassing failure to renew its liquor licence for its lounge at Auckland Airport's domestic terminal but says the licence was sorted for the new Nelson facility.

It has just opened a new much-enlarged regional lounge at Auckland Airport and there are also plans under way to open new lounges in New Plymouth and Napier.

In October, Nelson Airport opened its new $32 million terminal.