Air New Zealand are already feeling the effects of this afternoon's trans-Tasman bubble announcement with the Kiwi airline experiencing a spike in flight bookings to Australia already.
Shortly after Jacinda Ardern's announcement, Air NZ CEO Greg Foran told 1 NEWS that his team would be ready for when quarantine-free travel with Australia opens up on April 19.
"We've been hanging out for this for months and months and months," Foran said.
"I've just come out from a meeting with our executives and, of course, there's lots of fist-pumping."
Foran said Air NZ are expecting more passengers even before the the restrictions ease later this month, as Kiwis can currently head to Australia without having to isolate and know they'll be able to re-enter New Zealand from April 19 without having to do so at our end too.
Adrian Littlewood was looking forward to quarantine-free flights arriving from Australia for the first time in over a year.
"In the last 30 minutes, we've seen an immediate uptake in people booking to head to Australia," Foran said.
"It's terrific."
Auckland Airport CEO Adrian Littlewood said his team was just as excited for this afternoon's announcement, saying they've been ready since last August for a trans-Tasman bubble.
"We've put physical doors between two parts of our international terminal to make sure that we could keep a clear separation and preserve the safety of people travelling from quarantine-free zones as opposed to those travelling from red zone countries into managed isolation.
"People can be confident with the processes... we did it in August last year and since then we have been trialling the process for these times."
Air NZ said in a statement ahead of April 19 they will be making sure their international airport lounges are ready for the influx in customers and also expect to bring back furloughed crew for the flights.
"We've had to bring back 300 crew, we've had to get planes up and running, catering up and running, airports up and running - we're so excited we've now got a date because we're ready to go," Foran added.
"We're ready for whatever the demand is."
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