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New Zealand brings forward international border reopening
March 17th 2022
International visitors will be able to travel to New Zealand without on arrival self-isolating or quarantining earlier than expected. Read More » New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, this week announced the reopening of the international border will be brought forward by several weeks. The island nation will be open to Australian citizens and permanent residents from April 12 and travellers from visa waiver countries are to be welcomed into the country on a quarantine-free basis from May 1. The original timeline had Australians eligible to travel into New Zealand from July and visitors from the rest of the world from October. “Closing our border was one of the first actions we took to stop COVID-19 two years ago," Ardern said. "It did the job we needed. Now we are highly vaccinated and are predicted to be off our Omicron peak, it’s safe to open up."
In a note to travel agents, Air New Zealand said it had more than 50 flights per week on 15 international routes and capacity would be adjusted to meet demand in coming months.
Qantas and Jetstar will have a combined 30 return flights a week on five routes between Australia and New Zealand from April 13 compared with two return flights a week currently. More flights are planned for May and June.
