Kiwi and Australian school holidays are set to bring a flurry of visitors to Queenstown. Photo / Jetstar
Kiwi and Australian school holidays are set to bring a flurry of visitors to Queenstown. Photo / Jetstar
Ski season, soccer and the school holidays are set to bring one of the busiest periods for air travel across the country.
Kiwi airports are gearing up for one of the busiest months of the year as school holidays start on both sides of the Tasman.
Auckland Airport says itexpects international capacity to be 91 per cent of pre-covid levels as school’s out. The main groups heading through New Zealand’s largest airports are families seeking winter sun or inbound travellers after a winter break in Aotearoa.
Queenstown is expecting visitor numbers to rival 2019 levels, despite disappointing snow levels.
With New South Wales and New Zealand schools set to break up on Friday, and Queensland and Victoria already on July holidays, the next couple of weeks will be busy.
International departures started to build yesterday and peak on Saturday as 15,000 passengers leave through international departures on the busiest day of July holidays.
The Fifa World Cup, which kicks off on July 20, is also expected to bring added pressure at peak times for travellers and the airport asks for patience, particularly when travelling internationally.
“We know at certain times the experience hasn’t been as smooth as what we’d like or what our customers expect,” says Scott Tasker, chief customer officer at Auckland Airport, who says that effort was being taken to make sure the arrivals process and Customs clearing would work as “efficiently and effortlessly as possible”.
Australia is the top international destination, followed by the US and China.
Wellington, Christchurch and the popular winter destination of Queenstown lead domestic outbound travel from Auckland.
“The July school holidays tend to be a popular time for families to travel, either heading away locally to catch up with whānau or to the snow or flying out to grab some sunshine in the Pacific or summer sun in the Northern Hemisphere,” says Tasker.
Auckland Airports’ busiest school holiday dates
Busiest days for international arrivals: Sunday, July 16, Sunday, July 9, Saturday, July 15
Busiest days for international departures: Saturday, July 1, Friday, June 30, Thursday, June 29
Busiest days for domestic arrivals: Friday, July 7, Friday, July 14, Friday June 30
Busiest days for domestic departures: Friday, July 7, Friday, June 30, Friday, July 14.
The Remarkables were packed on Monday.
Holiday makers arrive in Queenstown, will the snow?
Queenstown’s ski resorts are a big draw for Australian and Kiwi travellers during the winter school holidays.
Queenstown Airport expects around 25,000 domestic and international arrivals next week, up 8000 from the beginning of the month.
Although snow is forecast this weekend, not all resorts are open and there are limited lifts running around the resort town.
The Remarkables and Cardrona are open but with limited runs, whereas Coronet Peak has had to close because of unfavourable conditions to skiers, although is still open to sledging.
Treble Cone in Wanaka has delayed its opening with an announcement due tomorrow.
However, despite the lack of snow, Destination Queenstown says occupancy rates are tracking in line with last year and winter 2019.
“Domestic and Australian visitors make up the largest proportion of visitors to Queenstown over the winter months and are hugely valuable, with winter visitors staying longer on average than visitors in other seasons,” said a Destination Queenstown spokesperson.
“The exciting news is that freezing levels are lowering, and snow is in the forecast for the mountains towards the end of this week.”
