Figures released by Queenstown Airport show in the 12 months to February, 266,000 Australians arrived in the resort.
That is a significant jump on the corresponding pre-Covid period, ending January 31, 2020, during which 229,000 Australians flew into Queenstown.
According to data released at the Auckland Airport Tourism Forum held in Wellington earlier this month, before Covid Australians made up about 40% of all overseas visitors to New Zealand. It has since recovered to 83% of that, but there were 265,000 fewer visitors in the year to February.
A Queenstown Airport spokeswoman said the strong demand for transtasman travel to Queenstown was not surprising, given its year-round appeal for Australians.
She also noted the increase in visitor numbers was through more passengers per aircraft, rather than an increase in the number of flights.
Destination Queenstown chief executive Mat Woods suggested a reason for the bounce-back was down to Virgin Australia, which resumed flights to the resort from Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in November 2022.
Before Covid, it had about 14% of the transtasman market, but it had not resumed flying into any other main centres.
Four airlines flew in and out of Queenstown — Qantas, Jetstar, Air New Zealand and Virgin, Mr Woods said.
"So, if you live in a port, or you’re a Virgin flyer, you’ll use Queenstown as your port of entry. The rest of the country, I think, are envious we have Virgin."
Destination Queenstown targeted the Australian market because they’re "high contributing".
"They stay longer, they go further, they forge connections and they give back — and they come back again, as well."
Passenger numbers through Queenstown Airport in the first four months of this year continued to break records.
Between January and April, a total of 898,519 passengers moved through the airport, up from 835,068 for the first four months of 2023 and 836,785 for the corresponding period in 2019.
While this month has been much quieter — typical for May — numbers are expected to rise again within the next fortnight, coinciding with King’s Birthday Weekend and Luma over that long weekend.
Another influx is expected to coincide with the scheduled skifield openings, Coronet Peak on June 14 and The Remarkables and Cardrona Alpine Resort on June 15.
