Travel bubble: Cash and people coming to the capital today ‘It’s day one of our revival’
All going to plan, the wheels of an Air New Zealand Airbus A321 will hit the tarmac at Wellington Airport at 1pm today marking the first scheduled international flight to arrive in the city in more than a year.
The first day of the AustraliaNew Zealand travel bubble is being hailed as ‘‘light at the end of a dark Covid tunnel’’ by Wellington businesses which have been hit hard by lockdown and a lack of overseas money.
It will also be welcomed by families who have been divided by the Tasman Sea for just as long and will now be able to see one another once more.
Prime Minister Jacinda Arden confirmed the travel bubble with Australia earlier this month, meaning people can fly to and from Australia and New Zealand without the need to quarantine. That bubble comes into effect today.
The economic boost to New Zealand’s economy as a result, between July 6 and the end of 2021, has been put as high as $8.8 billion.
Wellington NZ, charged with promoting the city, hasn’t yet worked the figures on the impact for Wellington but figures from the last full year Australians could come here – up to the end of 2019 – show they spent $258 million in the region’s economy.
General manager Anna Calver said after domestic tourism – which traditionally made up 70 per cent of Wellington’s tourism – Australia was our biggest market.
Air New Zealand chief executive Greg Foran said 5200 passengers were booked to fly across the Tasman today.
‘‘Monday will go down in history as one of the most monumental days for Air New Zealand and a real turning point for the airline,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s day one of our revival.’’
NZ0246 will take off at 7.45am from Sydney (9.45am NZ time) where a sunny day is forecast and the temperature is expected to hit 25deg C later in the day.
It will touch down in Wellington to a notably cooler day at the end of a 3-hour, 15-minute flight. The temperature in Wellington is expected to be 17C at 1pm on a fine and sunny day.
Wellington Airport spokeswoman Melanie Nunn said passengers could expect ‘‘business as usual’’ on arrival, albeit with additional precautions to ward off Covid-19. These included thermal camera temperature checks of new arrivals, Covid-19 signage, and increased cleaning.
To mark the occasion the airport has painted a 250-metre-long, 10m-high welcome mural on the grass bank at the northern edge of the runway.