Novocastrians are about to receive greater access to the vast beauty of New Zealand as Virgin Australia plan to be the first airline in 16 years to introduce direct services between Newcastle Airport and Auckland. Newcastle Airport will welcome the new routes during the peak holiday period from 22nd November 2018 to 17th February 2019, seeing three return services per week, totaling 13,000 additional seats across the season, creating a gateway between the Greater Hunter Region and New Zealand.
The new services make Virgin Australia the first airline to provide an international service from the recently upgraded Newcastle terminal, a swift nod to Newcastle Airport as a major entry point for New South Wales and an important connection in the ongoing connectivity between the two neighboring countries.
“Importantly, these flights will help drive regional tourism growth and dispersal of visitors to Australia’s most popular tourism destinations”, explained Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Michael McCormack. “New Zealand and Australia remain strong reciprocal tourism markets, with some 2.845 million travellers moving between the destinations each year”.
The new flights between Newcastle and Auckland are on sale now at virginaustralia.com for AUD$199 one
way, excluding checked baggage. Effective from 22nd November of this year, the services will fly between the two airport’s on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Flight VA199 will leave Newcastle at 7:30pm and arrive in Auckland the following day at 12:25am local time; Flight VA198 will leave Auckland at 5:10pm and arrive in Newcastle at 6:45pm.
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