After an absence of more than three years, a giant Emirates A380 touched down at Christchurch Airport today.
The flight from Dubai via Sydney signals the return to the route's daily service.
Christchurch is the smallest city Emirates serves with its A380 fleet. It first hosted one of the planes in 2016.
The airline resumed its non-stop Dubai-Auckland route late last year, but the restart of the Dubai-Sydney-Christchurch route was delayed several months due to "ongoing operational constraints and resourcing pressures".
"The return of the Emirates A380 service is a great boost for Christchurch and the wider South Island. It shows we're open for business and welcoming travellers after several years of Covid restrictions," Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger said.
Tourism bodies say summer has seen a steady return in passenger numbers since the reopening of international borders, but challenges still remain.
"We've seen good interest so there's good appeal for New Zealand, but people are considering there's not much airline capacity yet, so I think that will be, as I say, slow and steady," Rene de Monchy of Tourism NZ said.
The first summer with fully opened borders had numbers at around 50% of where things were pre-Covid, meaning a spend of nearly $1 billion.
Visitors were mainly coming from Australia, North America and the UK.
It's hoped more big flights will put New Zealand in good stead, Katie Stevenson reports. (Source: 1News)
James McKenzie of Mt Hutt skifield said they were expecting more international visitors to southern slopes this winter.
They were already having more luck recruiting from overseas for the upcoming season as international travel slowly returns.
"When we were just recruiting from within New Zealand it's been pretty tough because the seasonal winter job isn't necessarily as appealing as something that's all year round, but we certainly see a lot of interest from overseas for people to come to New Zealand to follow their passion for snow sports."
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