Ardern yesterday announced a four-day extension to the current level 3 lockdown in Auckland, with the rest of the county to remain at alert level 2.
From midnight Sunday, Tāmaki Makaurau will move to alert level 2 and Aucklanders will be able to travel domestically again without an exemption.
And Aucklanders aren't waiting to leave the city: four hours after Ardern's announcement there were seats on just one Queenstown-bound flight available until September 5.
Air New Zealand's website shows flights to Queenstown are fully booked between Monday and Thursday, and Saturday. There is one flight available on Friday next week.
An Aucklander, who didn't want to be named, told The New Zealand Herald he'd kept an eye on the airline's flights after the latest level 3 lockdown meant he and his family couldn't fly to Queenstown this weekend.
"Within hours of this afternoon's announcement, all of the flights were gone," he said.
"Prices had gone up and there was some demand, but I thought it was interesting."
With Jetstar grounding all of its domestic services until August 26, it left few options for domestic travel, he said.
"Part of it will be built-up demand for people wanting to go on holiday - you wouldn't want to think people are fleeing the city."
Air New Zealand has operated a reduced domestic schedule to and from Auckland for the past week and recently made mask wearing compulsory on all flights out of Auckland.
Amid the fear of Covid-19 spreading from aircrew to passengers, Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran last week outlined the company's updated safety measures.
All airline crew will wear masks and gloves when interacting with passengers and will don full PPE when dealing with unwell passengers.
Social distancing - which cuts capacity on turbo prop planes to the regions to 50 per cent and 65 per cent on jets - is in place.
Domestic crew and those operating the managed isolation flights are not required to be routinely tested as they are wearing appropriate PPE (gloves and masks) on board and in the terminal, an Air New Zealand spokeswoman said.
''We are following the Ministry of Health guidance in full, have assessed the risks according to international best practice and have addressed these appropriately," she said.
"Our crew are wearing gloves to prevent transmission through touch and masks to prevent transmission via droplets."
