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Low-cost carrier Jetstar Airways hopes to be able to operate night flights to Queenstown, the popular New Zealand skiing town, from Australia. Jetstar, which is wholly owned by Qantas Airways Ltd, has launched direct services between Australia and Queenstown from December. The twice weekly service from both Melbourne and the Gold Coast are scheduled to fly through the day.
Mr Westaway said the implementation of the latest Required Navigation Performance (RNP) technology across the airline’s fleet would hopefully allow for night landings at a difficult airport such as Queenstown. "The aspiration is that we could operate trans-Tasman services leaving Australia in the early evening and arriving into Queenstown mid-to-late evening," Mr Westaway said on Wednesday. "The very best in GPS assistance, as well as updated lighting and infrastructure at the airport, can facilitate a more around-the-clock operation there which they currently can’t do."
Jetstar said the RNP satellite technology would help reduce delays and diversions in poor weather and times of low visibility. Queenstown airport currently had no night operations during the winter months, Mr Westaway said. Jetstar said it would base an additional Airbus A320 in New Zealand to support increasing flights to Auckland and Queenstown to 11 services per week.
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