Air New Zealand welcomes National Convention Centre announcement

Air New Zealand welcomes the announcement that an agreement has been reached between the Government and Skycity for a national convention centre to be built in Auckland, subject to the necessary legislative approvals.

Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer, Christopher Luxon, says:  “The planned national convention centre, with its capacity of 3,500, will allow New Zealand to compete to host larger conferences, providing access to a new market that we are currently disadvantaged in due to a lack of appropriately sized infrastructure.

As an airline based in New Zealand, which has relatively small volumes of business traffic, the conventions market is very important to us and one which we actively target in Australia, Asia and North America. The 33,000 extra delegates a year the centre is predicted to attract is a significant increase.”

Next month Air New Zealand will fly 80 Australian conference organisers and organisations considering New Zealand as a venue for their next meeting to Auckland for the Meetings 2013 trade show, alongside buyers from Asia.

“In addition to the increased international visitors and foreign exchange earnings that are forecast to result from the development of a national convention centre, a key benefit is that conferences are held throughout the year which will help reduce seasonal variations in demand for travel to New Zealand,” says Mr Luxon.