China Southern Airlines’ capacity increased from 3xweek to 5xweek in late December, but went daily for the full month. China Southern added 63% capacity in the month, and is the major driver for growth. The new Cathay Pacific service, direct to and from Hong Kong, also helped bring more Chinese visitors to us.Forecast Chinese arrivals for the month of February are for up to 6000 visitor arrivals which is a growth of 50% compared to February 2017. This equates to an additional $7.5m in visitor spend (based on the average spend of $3800) as those visitors spreads out across the South Island.

|  A Christchurch Airport release  |||  February 09 2018   |||