Air New Zealand plans to increase its total domestic capacity by more than 650,000 seats in the coming financial year, and Queenstown Airport is to be a major recipient of the increased availability.
Increased flight frequencies and the airline's fleet modernisation programme, which will mean the domestic jet flight continues to move from Boeing 737s to more modern larger A320 aircraft, are behind this substantial growth.
In Queenstown, projects to improve Queenstown Airport may be brought forward to cater for an extra 140,000 passengers expected to travel to the resort with Air New Zealand next year.
Of those, 110,000 on the Auckland-Queenstown route will result from more flights on the A320 aircraft and more than 20,000 new seats will be added to the Christchurch-Queenstown route.
As the latest airline market conditions showed this week, Air New Zealand is on something of a roll.
The airline carried 1.51 million passengers during the month of March, 8.5% more than the same period last year. Revenue passenger kilometres - or passenger demand - were 14.1% higher on a capacity increase of 10.1%.
The airline showed increases across the board: from short-haul passenger numbers increasing 7.2%, Tasman-Pacific demand up 10.6% to long-haul numbers increasing nearly 19%.
Air New Zealand was criticised last year for deciding to cancel, or reduce, flights into some regional centres such as Westport and Whakatane. However, smaller airlines stepped up to fill some gaps in regional services and they will survive if people continue to use them.
On a wider stage, Air New Zealand has a duty to its shareholders, which include the Government, to provide a profit and a dividend, and chief executive Christopher Luxon will be intensely focused on that task as he expands the airline's international capacity.
Last week, the airline announced it will start flying to Houston, Texas, from December this year, opening up a direct connection between New Zealand and America's south for the first time.
Air New Zealand will soon have direct flights to five North American destinations - Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Hawaii and Houston.
However, it is the increased seat availability to Queenstown which should have the region celebrating.
Queenstown Airport already significantly benefits from its association with Auckland International Airport which is a shareholder in Queenstown Airport.
Auckland airport continues to funnel international travellers through Auckland and on to Queenstown in increasing numbers, particularly those coming from China.
That has already provided a boost for the resort in increased business for hospitality providers and tourist operators, not forgetting the extra business received by the airport.
If capacity has been a restraint to getting more visitors to Queenstown, Air New Zealand's announcement is surely the best news possible.
The resort has direct international flights from Australia, but capturing the Asian and Indian markets and having more visitors head directly to Queenstown can only be of benefit.
With extra flights from the American south, there is an opportunity for Queenstown to perhaps push its winter playground marketing to an audience which does not already associate this region with some of the best skiing in the land.
However, Queenstown Airport is already squeezed. A $12 millon expansion of the international terminal, to be completed by June, will more than double the size of the departure lounge, but other areas will face increasing pressure.
For the large part of winter, Queenstown Airport is said to be unable to take any more flights, so some urgent planning will be needed to make the most of the extra capacity on offer.
This will be expensive, but it will be a programme where money is well spent to cement Queenstown as New Zealand's premier holiday resort.
If only there was also additional support for Dunedin flights.
That is well overdue.
