Media release

16 September 2016

Air New Zealand’s 75th exhibition makes South Island debut

Air New Zealand’s award winning exhibition – Air New Zealand 75 Years: Our Nation. The World. Connected opens at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch tomorrow.

The exhibition has been visited by more than 675,000 people in Wellington at Te Papa Museum and at the Auckland War Memorial Museum and won Best Exhibition of the Year at last month’s 2016 New Zealand Event Awards which recognises outstanding achievement within the events industry.

The free exhibition features behind-the-scenes insights into the operation of the airline, a virtual reality future cabin, a display of uniforms from throughout the decades and historical collections. This includes a number of South Island stories such as that of former Christchurch Mayor Henry Wigram’s flying school, Lady Constance Stewart’s involvement with the Canterbury Aero Club and tourism pioneer Rodolph Wigley who founded the Mt Cook Group which later included Mount Cook Airlines.

Air New Zealand Chief Executive Officer Christopher Luxon says the airline is proud to partner with Canterbury Museum and to share the popular exhibition with a South Island audience.

“Christchurch is a key gateway to the South Island for both domestic and international travellers and we’re delighted to give more people the opportunity to experience how our national airline has evolved over the years and how its stories have played a key part in the history of our country and people,” says Mr Luxon.

Canterbury Museum Director Anthony Wright says the Museum is very excited to be the South Island venue hosting this wonderful exhibition.

“This is a fantastic exhibition which we know will be very popular with all our visitors but particularly with local audiences. It will draw record numbers over the summer and bring more Cantabrians back into the central city. By the end of its run, we fully expect that more than one million people will have seen Air New Zealand 75 Years in Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.”

The exhibition Air New Zealand 75 Years: Our Nation. The World. Connected will run until Sunday 26 March 2017.

Ends

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