Adelaide service opens up new horizons

New business, tourism and cultural relationships between New Zealand and South Australia are expected to flow from today's direct air service between Auckland and Adelaide.

South Australian Tourism Minister Jane Lomax-Smith was in Auckland yesterday singing the praises of her home state and touting the benefits that will materialise from Qantas' new direct service.

Her own experience of getting here shows that flying from Adelaide to Auckland is on a par with transcontinental travel, with delays making for a 12-hour trip.

Lomax-Smith said the new flights, taking about four hours, would make New Zealand "essentially a new market" for South Australian tourists.

The boom in Australian tourists visiting New Zealand has not extended to South Australia, with a transtasman holiday only the fourth most popular destination.

Business links between Auckland and South Australia have also been growing in the past few years, the biggest investment coming in 2000 when SkyCity bought the Adelaide casino for $217 million.

A big investment the other way happened in September, when South Australian company SeaLink bought the financially distressed Hauraki Gulf ferry operations of Subritsky.

Qantas' first nonstop flight was due to leave Adelaide for Auckland at 10.30 South Australian time last night (2 1/2-hour time difference), arriving just after 5am (NZT). The return flight leaves Auckland at 6.15am, arriving in Adelaide at 8.30am - which South Australian tourism promoters say gives travellers enough time to make it to the Barossa Valley for a vineyard lunch.

Qantas is starting the new service slowly, with three flights a week using a 168-seat, two-class Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

The service will operate from Adelaide on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, returning from Auckland on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.