Queenstown Airport's Manaia Lounge to welcome back international travellers

The Manaia Airport Lounge is ready to welcome back guests from Monday. Photo / Supplied

From Monday travellers departing Queenstown's International Airport will be able to enjoy one last view of the Remarkables from the Manaia Lounge.

After 15 months the Business Lounge will be open again for Australian Skiers and travellers departing on transtasman services.

"It's been a really tough year for everyone and we're grateful to now be in a position to reopen and welcome back locals and visitors who are looking for some extra space and comfort or to treat themselves at the start or end of a holiday," said Kellie Clarke, station manager for the Manaia Queenstown Airport.

Inside passengers will find reading areas, dedicated bathrooms and complimentary servings of hot and cold food.

Ahead of the delayed snow-sports season in Queenstown and Wanaka ski fields, the airport has been gearing up to welcome an increasing number of leisure travellers.

Queenstown Airport's GM of community affairs Sara Irvine welcomed the return of Manaia's hospitality offering to passengers, saying it was "another sign that the region is beginning to recover and rebuild."

Located in the International Terminal of Queenstown Airport the lounge caters for up to 150 lounge members and guests.

As a pay-to-access lounge, guests of any airline can access the lounge from $55 an adult.
Owned by Menzies Aviation the lounge currently caters to club members of South Island airlines, including Qantas, Jetstar Emirates and Singapore Airlines.

It is a competitor to the regional Air New Zealand Lounge in the Airport, which reopened on 19 April with the safe-travel bubble with Australia. The national carrier's post-pandemic lounges suspended self-serve buffet, and introduced contact-free food and coffee orders via app.

Other than that Air NZ's manager for global lounges Alison Swarbrick says the experience is "relatively normal, bar the several thousand bottles of hand sanitiser that customers will see everywhere."