Although it’s a headline we’ve read many times before, New Zealand finally seems ready to properly open borders once again for all Australian travellers hoping to hope across the ditch to both the north and south islands. While the much-discussed trans-Tasman bubble eventually popped last year when Delta reared its ugly head, PM Jacinda Ardern has announced that New Zealand borders are reopening and the county will finally welcome the return to all fully vaccinated Australian visitors from 11:59 pm on April 12th.
This means that Australian visitors will be able to travel to New Zealand without the need for self-isolation on the provision of a negative pre-departure test. Although Rapid Antigen Tests will be required upon arrival and on either day 5 or 6 if Aussies are planning to stay that long.
A few weeks after that, on May 1st, New Zealand will also begin to welcome international visitors from all visa waiver countries. They too will no longer have to undergo quarantine and will be subject to the same test requirements as detailed above.
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“We are ready to welcome the world back,” said the Prime Minister in a media statement today.
“We have now received guidance that it is safe to significantly bring forward the next stage or border re-opening work. In particular, I look forward to welcoming back our trans-Tasman travellers, who have historically made up 40% of our international arrivals.”
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The New Zealand borders reopening align with the Australian school holidays and upcoming winter ski season so it won’t be any surprise to see places like Queenstown and Wanaka fill up well before urban hotspots like Auckland and Wellington.
For all up to date information on New Zealand borders reopening you can head to the New Zealand government’s immigration website linked below.
Shortly after the New Zealand border announcement, Qantas and Jetstar revealed that both carriers will ramp up their respective trans-Tasman flights considerably from 13th April. Up to 30 return flights will operate on five routes initially before a further increase in services during May and June.
Qantas Responds To New Zealand Borders Reopening
Qantas will begin flying daily from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney to Auckland, and Sydney to Christchurch using a mix of Boeing 737s and wide-body Airbus A330s. For more budget-minded travellers, Jetstar will also step up to the plate with three weekly flights from the Gold Coast to Auckland using its Airbus A320 aircraft. Both airlines will steadily ramp up scale in an effort to return to pre-COVID times, when both airlines operated more than 170 return services a week between Australia and New Zealand.
More interesting, every Qantas and Jetstar flight to New Zealand in May will be deemed a “Points Plane,” meaning exactly what you’d expect. Frequent Flyers will be able to use Qantas Points to book any seat as a Classic Rewards Seat. Although if you can also use cash if you want to.
For the remainder of 2022, Qantas has increased the availability of seats that can be booked on with points on all trans-Tasman services by as much as 50%. This is notable because classic flight rewards seats across the Tasman start from as little as 18,000 Qantas points (plus all the associated taxes and fees). On Jetstar, reward seats start from 14,400 Qantas Frequent Flyer points.
