Tasmania is set to get its first regularly timetabled international flights in 23 years, with Air New Zealand poised to begin flights between Auckland and Hobart in the next week. As New Zealand gears up to allow trans-Tasman travel without quarantining, one of Australia’s best-kept secrets will soon get better connected to the world.

Flying to Tasmania has always been an embarrassing business. Typically, you have to connect in either Sydney or Melbourne. Coming off a long-haul flight, that’s usually the last thing you feel like doing.

Air New Zealand is due to fly from the Tasmanian capital of Hobart to Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, every Thursday and Sunday beginning from April 22, reports Xinhua news agency.

Up to then, flights have gone via either Australia's largest city Sydney or the second-largest city Melbourne. The service will be Air New Zealand's first new international route since the Covid-19 pandemic started.

Air New Zealand Chief Executive Greg Foran said in a statement that it is exciting to be launching a new route alongside reopening the airline's other Australian ports after a year of being predominantly a domestic airline.

"Our Hobart-Auckland route will open a direct link between 540,000 potential Tasmanian tourists and our biggest city, with regional hot spots like Queenstown and Rotorua a short skip away," he said.

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