When Qantas flight QF121 from Sydney landed at Queenstown airport on April 19 this year it marked the first trans-Tasman flight to land in Queenstown for more than a year and heralded the resurgence of international tourism to the district.

The Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC) has released its passenger numbers for April 2021 this week, revealing a massive increase in flights and passengers as the borders reopened to Australian-based visitors who could arrive without having to go through managed isolation.

April 2021 recorded 129,454 arriving and departing passengers travelling through Queenstown’s terminal - an increase of 202,172 per cent compared with April 2020 when only 60 passengers were recorded.

The increased activity in April 2021 included 449 domestic and 31 international aircraft landings last month compared with only three domestic aircraft landings during lockdown last year.

QAC corporate and community affairs general manager Sara Irvine said the reintroduction of trans-Tasman flights had gone very smoothly.

Airport staff are witnessing lots of friends and family reconnecting but they’re expecting further increases in flights and passenger numbers with the winter season and upcoming events, such as the Luma Festival and Winter Pride, she said.

“We expect a busy winter season with 70 flight arrivals from Australia each week, compared to about 22 arrivals per week at the moment.”

“We have flights between Queenstown and Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane (Air NZ and Qantas); Jetstar will be starting back up in late June and the Gold Coast flight will return; and when Virgin Australia returns they have indicated that Queenstown will be included on the schedule from the start,” Sara said.

While the dramatic increase in passenger numbers has significantly aided the local economy’s ability to rebound, the overall passenger numbers for the last 12 months are still well below previous levels.

QAC said the rolling 12-month passenger numbers (from April 2020-April 2021) remained 45 per cent lower than the previous year. 

Total passengers (domestic and international) for April 2019 were not far short of 100,000 (96,374) compared with just over 65,000 (65,103) for April 2021.