Christchurch Airport Charts Its Biggest-Ever Summer with New Routes and Bigger Aircraft
Other airlines are ramping up as well, building on the steady growth Christchurch Airport has seen in recent years.
Cathay Pacific is back from 2 November, with up to five flights a week to Hong Kong during the summer peak. Most of these flights will use the larger A350-1000, which means 54 more seats per plane compared to the A350-900. China Southern will run daily flights to Guangzhou all season, and for 12 weeks between December and February, they will add three more flights each week. That means up to ten flights a week, with options in both the morning and evening.
United Airlines will use its larger Boeing 787-9 on the San Francisco route all season, adding 14 seats per flight and more premium seats for travellers heading across the Pacific.
Qantas is stretching its third daily Sydney flight from just six weeks last summer to 14 weeks this time, adding about 11,700 seats. Its Brisbane flights will run twice a day all season. Altogether, Qantas will have seven passenger flights into Christchurch each day, building on the trans-Tasman growth it announced in 2024.
Jetstar is bringing in two new routes: a three-times-weekly Perth flight from 27 October with the bigger Airbus A321, and a four-times-weekly Sydney service from 26 October. Fiji Airways will also boost its Nadi flights to as many as five a week during the December and January peak.
