The total number of passengers flying in and out of Queenstown Airport increased 21.1% to 148,698 in February compared to the same period last year. Chinese New Year, Waitangi Day holiday weekend and various events, including the Challenge Wanaka triathlon, played a key role in boosting travel.
Domestic passengers numbers were up 22.2% compared to February 2015. While there’s no mechanism to measure international travellers on a domestic flight, it is likely that the impact of long haul services added into New Zealand had a flow-on effect, particularly on the Auckland-Queenstown route which was up 31%.
International passenger numbers were up 18.0% with growth on all international routes.