Pacific Blue will be flying Queensland skiers straight to the slopes this winter with two direct flights a week from Brisbane to New Zealand's ski capital of Queenstown from the end of June.

The seasonal flights on Fridays and Sundays will double Pacific Blue's international services into the winter resort, which are currently two flights a week from Sydney.

The Brisbane-Queenstown flights will begin on 25 June and the last seasonal service will be on 12 September, providing a total of 22 return ski flights and adding over 3,000 seats to the Queenstown market from Australia.

To celebrate the new services the airline is inviting Queensland snow bunnies to hop aboard early with internet sale fares available now from just AU$249* one-way, available until midnight 11 March or sold out. Regular lead-in internet fares will start at AU$289* one-way.

Queenstown-Brisbane fares are also on sale today for the seasonal services at NZ$249* one-way, available now until midnight 11 March or sold out. Regular lead-in fares start at NZ$289* one-way.

Pacific Blue CEO Mark Pitt said that many Queensland skiers were already using the airline's services to Christchurch and then driving to Queenstown. "These seasonal services will give Queenslanders a low fare, direct option to enjoy the ski fields in Queenstown and in nearby Wanaka."

Despite considerable competition in the short-haul market to and from New Zealand, Pacific Blue said it believed that there continued to be growth opportunities such as the seasonal services it was announcing today.

"Starting at the end of March we're increasing our Christchurch-Brisbane flights from the current seven to ten flights a week and we've confirmed our Wellington-Sydney services at four flights a week, up from three flights when we launched last September," Mark Pitt added.

"We believe Kiwis and Aussies are now very comfortable with the choices that low-fare travel offers because they can spend less in the air and more when they get there."

Mark Pitt predicted that both the trans-Tasman and Pacific markets could see further moves from legacy carriers to match the low fares offered by Pacific Blue.

"Full-service airlines world-wide are trying to find low-cost solutions to the way they do business and offering no-frills fares as part of their product mix is one option they're considering.

"This underlines what Pacific Blue has known all along - that people want a high quality service with value-for-money fares and are happy to pay for only the extras they want."