Sydney flight heralds summer

The Air New Zealand plane at Rotorua Airport yesterday. Photo / Stephen Parker

Sydney direct flights have returned to Rotorua - the first one of the summer bringing with it a mix of holiday makers, family reunions and expats coming home.

And while it's still early days, Rotorua Airport chief executive says bookings for the peak summer months are looking "reasonably solid".

There was no direct service between Rotorua and Australia over winter, however twice-weekly summer flights to and from Sydney resumed yesterday. The first flight landed at Rotorua Airport on time at 2.45pm, returning to Sydney an hour later.

Airport chief executive Alastair Rhodes said extensive marketing to promote the flights was under way with Air New Zealand and its Australian partner Virgin, Destination Rotorua, local event promoters, tourism operators and media agencies in Sydney.

"Our focus is on creating targeted campaigns to reach directly into our target audience - ie, people travelling to Rotorua for events. Such campaigns have proven extremely cost-efficient and effective for the airport, allowing us to reach large numbers of people and giving us a bigger, better bang for our spend."

Mr Rhodes said Rotorua's mountain biking was a hot topic in Australia, particularly the recently launched Skyline Gravity Park and March's Crankworx festival. The airport was actively promoting that including a social media campaign in Sydney targeting Crankworx supporters, he said.

"At this stage, Air New Zealand has no plans for additional Tasman flights over the busy times, however we are in constant discussions with them in relation to the different events and activities in Rotorua to ensure they have sufficient capacity to match demand," he said.

"The Crankworx team is also in discussions with Air NZ to explore how Air NZ can support this world class event."

At the airport, a steady stream of passengers got off the first flight, including an embarrassed David Cameron, whose aunty and cousins greeted him with balloons, hats and a rendition of Happy Birthday for his 21st birthday.

Another local woman was meeting her Sydney-based daughter, home for a bereavement.

The woman had used the direct service to Sydney about 15-20 times. As she was disabled, it was difficult to travel to Auckland so the direct flights had been fantastic, she said.

Until October 27 there will be a return flight between Sydney and Rotorua on Mondays and Thursdays. That changes to Tuesdays and Thursdays until March 28 then it returns to Mondays and Thursdays when flights stop on May 1.