Pacific Blue adds Auckland-Queenstown flights

Photo / Brett Phibbs

Low fare airline Pacific Blue will start weekend flights between Auckland and Queenstown in September.

Queenstown will be the airline's fifth New Zealand domestic destination.

Pacific Blue has been flying between the three main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch since November 2007, and added domestic Dunedin services in July 2008.

The first of year-round Saturday and Sunday return flights from Auckland to Queenstown was due to start on September 19, Pacific Blue said today.

Pacific Blue general manager commercial Adrian Hamilton-Manns said the addition of a domestic Queenstown service made sense, as the airline was already setting up at Queenstown for twice-weekly flights to Sydney, due to start in the first week of September.

"It's a considerable investment to set up at any new airport so once we made the decision to begin international flights to Queenstown we also looked at options for a domestic service," he said.

Pacific Blue is beginning a range of new routes in September including direct flights from Hamilton to Sydney and Brisbane, flights from Dunedin to Brisbane, and from Wellington to Sydney.

- NZPA