Air New Zealand has released its domestic schedule for July and August this afternoon, which includes direct services between Invercargill and Wellington and Invercargill and Auckland beginning July 6.

This sees the return of Air New Zealand’s Invercargill-Auckland A320 jet service, which will operate four return services a week and Invercargill-Wellington Q300 service seven times a week. 

Air New Zealand Head of Tourism and Regional Affairs Reuben Levermore said the airline was thrilled to be heading back to Invercargill using its A320 jet.

“When we launched the jet service in August last year, we had such an enthusiastic response from the Southland community who had long sought a direct connection to Auckland. Although times have since become more challenging, we are ready to resume the service and work with our partners in the region to enable tourism and broader economic recovery.”

The new Auckland-Invercargill A320 jet service will operate on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The flight will depart Auckland at 10.35am, arriving in Invercargill at 12.40pm. The return flight will leave Invercargill at 1.20pm, arriving in Auckland at 3.20pm. 

The Invercargill and Wellington flight will also begin operations from July 6, with one daily return service operated by a 50-seat Q300 turboprop aircraft throughout the week.

Great South Chief Executive Graham Budd welcomed the announcement and said the re-establishment of the flights was “really critical for Southland’s economic re-start”.

“Increased connectivity to and from Southland will provide further motivation for people to travel south and gives our local exporters and businesses a renewed sense of confidence in their operations post COVID-19,” he said.

Invercargill Airport general manager Nigel Finnerty said it was great the service, which was performing well pre-COVID, and was set to take off again.

“It’s very exciting, it’s great to see it come back so quickly. We’ll be able to show how special our place [Southland] is, which is important to how we come back after a lockdown.”

He said the resumed jet connection back between Auckland and Invercargill would “really support Southland’s post COVID-19 recovery”.

Flights would be progressively available to book over the coming days on the Air New Zealand website.