Virgin Australia is marking its return to New Zealand with cut-price fares on the Tasman.

The airline is today touching down on New Zealand soil for the first time in close to 1000 days with flights into Queenstown.

Fights from Brisbane and Sydney will arrive at Queenstown International Airport, creating a new gateway of travel between Australia and New Zealand.

To mark the occasion, Virgin Australia has launched 15,000 sale fares from $409 Economy return in a five-day sale. The bargain fares will be welcomed by travellers who have been paying close to three times that for some one-way flights across the Tasman where capacity is running at about 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

The return of Virgin Australia will also be welcomed by passengers who haven’t been able to use flight credits out of this country, although services are limited to travel out of Queenstown.

Virgin Australia Group chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka said today’s announcement marks an exciting day for Virgin Australia and its guests as the airline’s network expansion continues.

“Today is a significant day for Virgin Australia with our first New Zealand flight in over two years.”

Virgin Australia direct Queenstown, New Zealand flight schedule:

Sydney: Daily return flights between Sydney and Queenstown from 2 November 2022.

Brisbane: Daily return flights between Brisbane and Queenstown from 2 November 2022.

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Melbourne: Return fights between Melbourne and Queenstown four times weekly from 3 November 2022, increasing to daily during the peak Christmas holiday period (12 December 2022 – 29 January 2023).

Virgin Australia group chief strategy and transformation officer Alistair Hartley said the demand for the Queenstown services is strong.

 “We are seeing strong demand across our international network over the Christmas school holiday period.’'

Flights to Queenstown will increase to 21 per week between December 12 and January 29, with a daily service operating from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, to help meet the demand.

“We are excited to be back on the arrivals board in Queenstown and we look forward to providing travellers more choice,” he said.

Virgin Australia sank into administration early in the pandemic and was bought by private equity firm, Bain Capital.

Just before the pandemic hit, Air New Zealand had a 37 per cent share of capacity on the Tasman, Qantas had 26 per cent, Virgin Australia 18 per cent, Jetstar 10 per cent and the remaining 9 per cent was shared between other carriers.