The return of international flights has been hailed as "massive news" for Dunedin’s tourism and accommodation sectors.
Dunedin International Airport Ltd (DIAL) is officially "international" again.
In a joint statement with Queensland Airports Ltd and Jetstar Group yesterday, the airport announced that transtasman flights would be returning after more than four years without them.
A flight, lasting about three and a-half hours, to and from the Gold Coast would be offered three times a week and aboard Jetstar’s A320-NEO aircraft fleet, from June 2025.
Motel Association Otago president and Aurora on George owner Chris Roy said the announcement was "massive news" and would be brilliant
for the city’s accommodation sector.
"The amount of employment, extra jobs and things like that ... it’s a really big boost to the local economy."
With three flights a week, it potentially meant hundreds of additional people would be visiting the city.
"It’s going to be a huge boost to accommodation and the city."
June through August were typically the quietest months in the year for accommodation and so it would be a "big boost" once those flights started up, Mr Roy said.
Queensland Airports Ltd chief executive Amelia Evans said the services were expected to deliver more than 116,000 passengers to the Gold Coast annually.
Larnach Castle managing director Norcombe Barker said that after a few hard years, having a direct route from Australia would be "gold" for the castle.
"It’s been a while coming and I appreciate the work that everyone’s put in to get it this far, but from a tourism point of view, we just need that air capacity and it just means a huge deal."
The flights would open up the gateway to the whole southern region and also help Dunedin to "be a city".
But the challenge now was to make sure the city promoted itself well enough to justify Jetstar’s decision to come to Dunedin, Mr Norcombe said.
"I can’t emphasise that enough.
"Jetstar aren’t doing this because they like Dunedin, they’re doing it because they think it’s economically viable and we’ve got to really support that."
DIAL chief executive Daniel De Bono said the airport had entered a "support agreement" with Jetstar, which DIAL would pay for depending on the performance of the route, and would help de-risk aspects of the first three years of the deal.
On social media yesterday the airport advertised the flights "as seen on the ODT" and on YouTube.
"It’s not new news.
"But it’s still good news."
Taieri College pupil Benjamin Paterson launched a campaign to reinstate international flights to and from Dunedin nearly a year ago, which garnered 25,000 signatures.
The 14-year-old said it felt great that international flights were now back and his campaign had been "a massive learning curve".
"I don’t have the power to get the airlines to come to Dunedin, but I’d like to think that maybe it did something."
To celebrate, Jetstar launched a 24-hour flash sale from noon yesterday with Dunedin to Gold Coast tickets available for $155.
The airport along with other landmarks around Dunedin, including St Paul’s Cathedral and Tuhura Otago Museum, were also lit-up orange yesterday to commemorate the milestone.
