Queenstown Airport

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Queenstown Airport is located in Frankton, Otago, New Zealand, and serves the resort town of Queenstown. The airport is 8km or a 10-minute drive from the Queenstown CBD. The airport handled 1.4 million airline-scheduled passengers for the year ending June 2015, making it the fourth busiest airport in New Zealand by passenger traffic. The airport consists of two runways, one of which is paved, and has a single-level terminal building with nine gates.HistoryQueenstown Airport was first licensed to operate in 1935, but it was not until the 1950s that commercial flights became commonplace, particularly commercial ‘flightseeing’ operations to Milford Sound. A regular scenic route between Queenstown and Dunedin was first established by Southern Scenic Air Services Ltd on 17 July 1950. Mount Cook Airline was the pioneer of tourist flights into Queenstown.In the 1960s, the grass runway was lengthened and regular services from Christchurch began on 6 November 1961 operating DC-3s with three flights a week on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday to Queenstown via Mount Cook and onto Te Anau/Manapouri. Services to other domestic destinations soon followed. Later in 14 October 1968, HS-748 aircraft were used which could carry between 42 and 58 passengers.A mainstay of the Milford route was the Britten Norman Islander which began service in September 1970. They were used extensively on the flights to Milford Sound as well as on the Queenstown-Te Anau and Queenstown-Alexandra-Dunedin routes.