Queenstown Trip

[Matthew]

Queenstown Trip

I recently went on a fun trip to Queenstown and got some good photos of aircraft while i was there. The flight to Queenstown from Auckland is operated by multiple Air New Zealand A320.

My aircraft on the way over a 5 year old domestic a320

About Queenstown

Queenstown is located in the south west of New Zealand the airport located in a very mountainous area. The airport runway is 6,204 feet long and at a elevation of 1,171 ft quite small for 3-4 hour flights with both the 737-800 and the A320 to Australia opearting out of the airport. Not to mention the high mountains around the airport.

Queenstown international airport

Flight to Queenstown

My flight was a late evening flight departing Auckland at 7:35PM and i got some great photos of the sunset above the clouds.

Manukau Harbour

Beautiful views from above the clouds

Sadly due to it being night there was no view of the mountains on the way over I was lucky though as there were still great views from the sky.

View of night sky

The approach into Queenstown due to the mountains is quite tough and involves high precision equipment especially at night. To land the aircraft guides itself around the many mountains with very little amount of time for pilots to line up on final.

Horrible photo showing Queenstown runway

My approach into Queenstown

Photos in Queenstown

In Queenstown I got some great photos of many aircraft including Air New Zealand A320, Jetstar A320 and Qantas 737-800 as they navigated around the mountains.

Air New Zealand A320

Air New Zealand A320 taking off

Air New Zealand A320 landing

Qantas 737-800 landing

Jetstar A320 landing

Qantas 737-800 lining up ready to takeoff after back taxing

Queenstown international airport

Flight Back

My flights ascent out of Queenstown back to Auckland

As you can see from the the google earth screenshot when departing to the north east to avoid the mountains the aircraft uses the valley to get enough height to avoid he mountains for reference the mountains on the right are more then 7,000 feet high. The flight home was turbulent a the seat belt sign was on the whole 1:30 minute flight.

do not use photos without permission thanks.

Hope you enjoyed my photos!

[Murfjet14]

Great photos hope you had fun

[Wattsup_jet]

What app do you use that gets you your flight route in that way?

[Matthew]

Flightrader to download file i used google earth to view file

[Callum_Brayshaw]

I have been there I went in April 2016 I think from like the 3rd to the 23rd this was my first international flight on my own

[MJhendo]

Great report, love hearing about anything NZ related on here! Queenstown is actually my local airport as I live over the hill in Wanaka. I normally take this flight (ZQN-AKL) 1-2 times per year, so know arrivals/departures routes off by heart - many of the Auckland departures fly right over the north end of Lake Wanaka. Definitely a place I could see myself controlling in the future (applying for ATC @ Airways NZ in a year or so)!

[Aussie_Wombat]

Nice! NZ really makes for some good Ariel shots. I just returned from NZ and now in Sydney airport. Gonna miss NZ

[Roy]

Wow nice!!! When i went to queenstown 3 years ago the approach looked sick as you could see all the mountains covered in snow and as you said before the approach must’ve been difficult

[Bev7787]

Nice! Last time I arrived through the airport was 9 years ago, although I was on one of the mountains overlooking the approach earlier this year. It fascinated me that the plane was below me, standing on ground.

[Ishan_S]

Nice pictures and good choice for background :)

[Matthew]

good luck i might want to be atc when im older or maybe a pilot.