Air New Zealand airports general manager Kate Boyer said the airline was gearing up to welcome nearly 120,000 customers flying to and from the city over the summer holiday period.
"They don’t call it a Dunner Stunner for nothing."
The airline said in a statement it was experiencing "strong demand" for flights to Dunedin, but Queenstown was expected to be the most popular domestic destination, outside the main cities, with a "whopping" 250,000 customers set to fly to and from the holiday hotspot over December.
A Dunedin International Airport spokeswoman said at this time of the year the numbers were significant — and today was due to be the busiest day at the airport over the holidays.
Along with Jetstar, a total of about 138,000 passengers were expected to fly to and from the city over the holiday period, the spokeswoman said.
"We look forward to next Christmas, when we will be welcoming friends and whānau from the Gold Coast to Ōtepoti, via the direct service, and seeing many from Dunedin enjoy reconnecting with their loved ones in the sunny Gold Coast."
Dunedin Airport chief executive Daniel De Bono said there was a "lot going on" at the terminal.
"This is just another busy few weeks ... so we’re really relishing this time of year.
"It’s great, and it’s awesome seeing people come together for Christmas."
Air New Zealand also said it was expecting to move up to one million kilograms of cherries to key export markets including Taipei, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan, in time for Chinese New Year.
Smaller shipments would go to North America and, through partnerships with other airlines, cherries would also make their way to Vietnam.
Chief executive of 45 South Tim Jones said the cherry season was only just getting started, but he expected it to be better than last year.
Mr Jones estimated the industry would export about 4000 tonnes of cherries.
While domestic demand was a little soft, export demand was "really strong".
"The whole air freight business has improved markedly over the last couple of years since Covid.
"I think most New Zealand cherry exporters would be feeling comfortable that there’s good capacity to get fruit to market this year."
