Alliance partners Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia will operate an additional 40,000 seats to and from Queenstown over the peak winter period of July to September this year.

Trans-Tasman seat capacity to Queenstown will increase by more than 12% for the period as a result of up to five additional alliance services per week between Queenstown and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.

Domestically, Air New Zealand will increase capacity to the region by 11% from Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch by upgauging a number of existing services to larger A320 aircraft 

Cam Wallace, Air New Zealand's Chief Sales and Commercial Officer, says the alliance partners now operate almost three times the number of trans-Tasman seats to Queenstown per year that they did five years ago.

“Queenstown has experienced exponential growth in recent years and we're pleased that through our alliance with Virgin Australia we are able to offer further capacity into this popular tourism destination.”

Virgin Australia's Chief Commercial Officer Judith Crompton said, “We are delighted to work with our alliance partner Air New Zealand to offer these direct services to Queenstown as it continues to grow as a popular destination for Australian travellers.”

Ends

Issued by Air New Zealand Public Affairs ph +64 21 747 320

About Star Alliance:

Air New Zealand is proud to be a member of Star Alliance.  The Star Alliance network was established in 1997 as the first truly global airline alliance to offer worldwide reach, recognition and seamless service to the international traveller. Its acceptance by the market has been recognized by numerous awards, including the Air Transport World Market Leadership Award and Best Airline Alliance by both Business Traveller Magazine and Skytrax. The member airlines are: Adria Airways, Aegean Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EGYPTAIR, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, SWISS, TAP Portugal, Turkish Airlines, THAI and United. Air India has been announced as a future member airline with Avianca Brazil to join under the existing Avianca membership. Overall, the Star Alliance network offers more than 18,000 daily flights to 1,269 airports in 193 countries.

For more information about Air New Zealand visit www.airnewzealand.com and for more information about Star Alliance visit www.staralliance.com