Queenstown International Airport is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

located in Frankton,

Otago Otago (, ; ) is a regions of New Zealand, region of New Zealand located in the southern half of the South Island and administered by the Otago Regional Council. It has an area of approximately , making it the country's second largest local go ...

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, which serves the resort town of Queenstown. The airport handled 2.10 million passengers as of 2024, making it the fourth busiest airport in New Zealand by passenger traffic. The airport is known for its scenery and challenging approach to land due to the nearby high terrain and proximity to housing.

History

Queenstown Airport was first licensed to operate in 1935, but it was not until the 1950s that commercial flights became commonplace, particularly commercial sightseeing operations to Milford Sound. A regular scenic route between Queenstown and Dunedin was first established by Southern Scenic Air Services Ltd on 17 July 1950. In the 1960s, the original grass runway was lengthened. Mount Cook Airline was the pioneer of tourist flights into Queenstown. Regular services from

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

began on 6 November 1961, operating DC-3s with three flights a week on a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to Queenstown via Mount Cook and onto Te Anau-Manapouri. Ansett New Zealand introduced the first jet aircraft flights into Queenstown Airport in 1989 using

British Aerospace 146 The British Aerospace 146 (also BAe 146) is a short-haul and regional airliner that was manufactured in the United Kingdom by British Aerospace, later part of BAE Systems. Production ran from 1983 until 2001. Avro International Aerospace manufa ...

aircraft. In 1995, Air New Zealand began operating Queenstown Airport's first trans-Tasman flight from

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

. Since this, an almost continuous expansion programme began to cater to passenger and airline demand. In 2010, runway lighting was installed to enhance low-visibility operations during daytime. In 2012, the airspace around Queenstown was redesigned to allow for Required Navigation Performance, Authorisation Required (RNP AR) operations. In April 2012, Queenstown Airport opened its new sealed cross-wind runway on the former grass runway; the cost of this project was $800,000 and took 10 months to complete. Sealing the runway reduced the number of disruptions as well as further improved safety." After announcing plans to expand the airport in 2010, work began in 2014 to extend the international terminal. On 23 June 2015, the new $17 million international terminal was opened. The expansion to the southern end of the terminal building doubled the size of the airport's international operations, and brought a new mezzanine level on top to enable airbridges to be built at a later stage. In November 2015, Queenstown Airport commenced a $17 million series of major airfield infrastructure improvements designed to improve operations for evening flights in winter 2016 and improve overall safety and efficiency of operations. In June 2015, the airport launched its new international terminal. In May 2014, New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and Australia's

Civil Aviation Safety Authority The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is an Australian statutory authority responsible for the regulation and safety oversight of Australia's civil aviation. CASA was formed on 6 July 1995 under the ''Civil Aviation Act 1988'' when the Civil ...

(CASA) approved Queenstown Airport's foundation safety case for after-dark flights, reliant on some additional infrastructure, including upgraded runway lights and widening the main runway to . On 4 May 2016, the airport's runway lights were officially switched on by transport minister Simon Bridges. The runway lighting allowed the airport to extend operations beyond sunset to its 10:00 pm noise abatement curfew. The first after-dark flight was a

Jetstar Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd, doing business as, trading as Jetstar, is an Australian low-cost airline headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Qantas, created in response to the threat posed by the ...

flight from Melbourne on 24 June 2016. The airport was voted 'World's Most Scenic Airport Landing' in 2015 by international private jet booking service PrivateFly. In March 2025, the airport finished installing an engineered materials arrestor system (EMAS) at both ends of the primary runway, becoming the first airport in Australasia to do so. In the event of a runway overrun, this system is designed to safely bring the aircraft to a stop, thus greatly reducing the damage to the aircraft and the risk of injury to those onboard and on the ground.

Terminal

Queenstown Airport has a single terminal that handles both international and domestic flights. It has been expanded several times since the 1990s to cope with the introduction of international flights and the rapid increase in passenger numbers. The terminal consists of a single level with nine gates. The terminal does not utilise

jet bridge A jet bridge is an enclosed connector which most commonly extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, and in some instances from a port to a boat or ship, allowing passengers to board and disembark without heading outside and being exp ...

s, however an expansion of the international departures area in 2015 included the construction of a mezzanine level to allow for the possible future provision of jet bridges.

Operations

Air New Zealand currently operate domestic flights to

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

and

, while

operates domestic services to Auckland and Wellington. Air Safaris currently operate a link service to

Lake Tekapo Lake Tekapo () is the second-largest of three roughly parallel lakes running north–south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin in the South Island of New Zealand (the others are Lake Pukaki and Lake Ōhau). It covers an area of and ...

airport. International services have increased over recent years with services to

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, and the Gold Coast operated by

Air New Zealand Air New Zealand Limited () is the flag carrier of New Zealand. Based in Auckland, the airline operates scheduled passenger flights to 20 domestic and 28 international destinations in 18 countries, primarily within the Pacific Rim. The airline h ...

Qantas Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A foundi ...

and Virgin Australia. Queenstown Airport is also used for sightseeing flights, especially to Milford Sound and Aoraki Mount Cook.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Strategic partnership with Auckland Airport

On 8 July 2010, Auckland International Airport Limited, the operator of

Auckland Airport Auckland Airport is an international airport serving Auckland, the most populous city of New Zealand. It is the largest and busiest airport in the country, with over 18.7 million passengers served in the year ended December 2024. The airpor ...

, announced it had agreed to take a 24.99% shareholding in Queenstown Airport Corporation Limited and formed a strategic alliance between the two airports. The alliance was expected to generate an extra 176,000 passengers annually through Queenstown Airport.

Incidents

On 22 June 2010, a Pacific Blue flight to Sydney departed from Queenstown. At the time, the airport had no runway lights, so the airline mandated that departure occur at least 30 minutes before evening civil twilight, allowing enough time for the aircraft to return to the airport case of an emergency. The Boeing 737–800 took off on a departure requiring a visual segment, after the departure time limit and in poor weather conditions. Passengers described a distressing take-off procedure, with the aircraft flying at a low altitude above Lake Wakatipu and the surrounding mountain terrain. The take-off was deemed an endangerment to the safety of the 70 passengers and crew aboard by the Civil Aviation Authority. Both pilots were suspended over the incident, and in April 2011, the flight's captain was charged under the Civil Aviation Act with unnecessary endangerment. This charge was later reduced to one of a careless use of an aircraft, with a maximum fine of

NZ$ The New Zealand dollar (; currency sign, sign: $; ISO 4217, code: NZD) is the official currency and legal tender of New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Niue, the Ross Dependency, Tokelau, and a British territory, the Pitcairn Islands. Within New Zeal ...

7,000. In March 2013, the pilot, Roderick Gunn, was found guilty and fined $5,100. In another separate incident in June 2010, two airliners were found to have had a high potential to have breached the required 1000-foot vertical separation, according to a report by the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission. Both were Boeing 737 aircraft, one operated by Qantas and the other by Pacific Blue. The report states that the breach was not investigated further because, in such circumstances, it was clear (1) that the potential for such a breach was high and (2) that, by itself, such a potential was a safety issue that needed addressing. Because of the report and other concerns, Airways New Zealand and the Civil Aviation Authority have changed the procedures at Queenstown Airport. Flight paths have been altered for large passenger aircraft, along with the use of

multilateration Trilateration is the use of distances (or "ranges") for determining the unknown position coordinates of a point of interest, often around Earth ( geopositioning). When more than three distances are involved, it may be called multilateration, f ...

air traffic management that both organisations say will ensure this situation is unlikely to be repeated.

References

External links

Official website
{{authority control Airports in New Zealand Transport in Otago Buildings and structures in Queenstown, New Zealand Transport buildings and structures in Otago International airports in New Zealand