19 Apr 2021

Moving pōwhiri welcomes Air NZ flight into Wellington

From Checkpoint, 6:08 pm on 19 April 2021

Emotions ran high at airports across the country today with Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown airports welcoming their first international passenger flights in almost 400 days.

The trans-Tasman bubble, expected to deliver a $1 billion boost to the economy is officially open.

That meant 5,000 passengers were able to travel freely between here and Australia today without the need to quarantine.

Visual journalists Samuel Rillstone and Dom Thomas were at Wellington Airport to witness what Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described as akin to scenes from the movie Love Actually.