The first Jetstar flight from New Zealand will arrive on Friday according to the Cook Islands Airport Authority, at 8.40pm with 1.30am arrivals set to resume later in the month.

After Friday, flights will continue to arrive at 8.40pm and depart to New Zealand at 9.35pm on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

From June 25 there will be daily flights, except for on Sunday. The flights will arrive in Rarotonga at 1.30am and depart from New Zealand 2.25am Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Jetstar Group chief executive Gareth Evans said it was great to see travel demand bounce back as New Zealand and the rest of the world settle into a new kind of normal.

“From June we’re relaunching all of our trans-Tasman and Cook Island routes, as well as increasing flights across our domestic network which will see us operating around 90 per cent of our pre-pandemic schedule by July,” Evans said.

“Our low fares are playing an incredibly important role in rebooting tourism after a tough few years, particularly for leisure destinations.”

Meanwhile, Air New Zealand is increasing its weekly flights in late June and July during the New Zealand school holidays.

The current ten flights a week increase to 14 from June 27 and remain between 12 to 14 until August 1 which then drops to nine flights a week.

When the border between New Zealand and the Cook Islands opened this year there were seven flights a week.

An Air New Zealand spokesperson said demand between Auckland and Rarotonga is continuously monitored.