Cheapest flightSnow landing
20 min20-Minute Snow Landing
★ 4.9 · 56 reviews
- Twenty minutes up the Franz Josef valley
- Lands on snow at the top of the icefall
- The shortest way onto ice you cannot walk to
- Free cancellation
$213
Check availability→ 
Franz Josef glacier helicopter
Twelve flights leave this village for the same block of ice, from $213 for twenty minutes to $827 for ninety. Every one of them lands somewhere you cannot walk to: since the terminal face collapsed in 2012 the glacier has no route up from the valley floor, which is why a helicopter is not the luxury version of this trip — it is the only version.
From, per person
12 flights compared$213
Twenty minutes and a landing on the icefall
Average rating
Across all 12 flights4.8 ★
Across 2,139 verified reviews
Time out
Minutes in the air20–90 min
From twenty minutes over Franz Josef to ninety over the Alps
Free cancellation 24 h
Refunded if weather cancels
Mobile voucher
Every flight lands
Instant confirmation
Window seat on small machines
Every flight over the ice
Every Franz Josef glacier helicopter flight
Twelve flights between $213 and $827, sorted by the only thing that really separates them: minutes in the air. Under thirty and you see Franz Josef and land on it. Thirty-five to forty-five and Fox comes into the loop. An hour or more and you are over Aoraki Mount Cook with two landings and a different kind of day.
Snow landingSmall machine
25 min25-Minute Snow Landing
★ 4.9 · 7 reviews
- Twenty-five minutes over the glacier
- Time on the snow at the landing site
- Photographs with nothing man-made in them
- Free cancellation
$213
Check availability→ 
Our top pick693 reviews
25 min25-Minute Alpine Landing
★ 4.8 · 693 reviews
- Ice pinnacles, crevasses, then the Southern Alps
- An alpine landing away from the glacier traffic
- The most reviewed flight in the village
- Free cancellation
$219
Check availability→ 
Two glaciersMount Cook
30 min30 Minutes: Franz Josef & Tasman
★ 4.8 · 84 reviews
- Franz Josef and the Tasman in one flight
- Crosses the Main Divide to the east
- The longest view of Aoraki for the price
- Free cancellation
$221
Check availability→ 
Fox and FranzSnow landing
30 min30 Minutes: Fox & Franz Josef
★ 4.9 · 152 reviews
- Both West Coast glaciers in half an hour
- A landing between the two valleys
- The cheapest way to see Fox as well
- Free cancellation
$254
Check availability→ 
Two glaciers402 reviews
35 min35 Minutes with Snow Landing
★ 4.7 · 402 reviews
- Franz Josef and Fox with a snow landing
- Thirty-five minutes, the middle length
- The most booked of the two-glacier flights
- Free cancellation
$268
Check availability→ 
Best rated527 reviews
35 min35 Minutes over Two Glaciers
★ 4.9 · 527 reviews
- Thirty-five minutes over both glaciers
- Rated 4.9 across more than five hundred reviews
- The flight most people end up on
- Free cancellation
$274
Check availability→ 
Grand TourSnow landing
40 min40-Minute Grand Tour
★ 4.4 · 21 reviews
- Forty minutes and a wider loop
- Deeper into the névé than the short flights
- Landing time built into the price
- Free cancellation
$340
Check availability→ 
Three glaciersLanding
45 min45 Minutes, Three Glaciers
★ 4.8 · 164 reviews
- Three glaciers in forty-five minutes
- Franz Josef, Fox and the country between them
- A landing at the far end of the loop
- Free cancellation
$384
Check availability→ 
A glass on the ice50 minutes
50 minShackleton 50-Minute Flight
★ 5.0 · 2 reviews
- Fifty minutes with a long landing
- A whisky poured over glacier ice at the top
- The one people book for an anniversary
- Free cancellation
$440
Check availability→ 
Four glaciersTwo landings
1 hOne Hour, Four Glaciers
★ 4.8 · 30 reviews
- Four glaciers and two separate landings
- A full hour across the Main Divide
- The most ice you can see in one flight
- Free cancellation
$495
Check availability→ 
The long one90 minutes
1.5 hThe Grand Adventure, 90 Minutes
★ 5.0 · 1 reviews
- Ninety minutes, the longest flight here
- Aoraki, the Tasman and the West Coast in one run
- Landings included, unhurried
- Free cancellation
$827
Check availability→ Two questions
Which flight is yours?
Seen the twelve above and still torn? Length is the only real variable. Twenty minutes gets you onto Franz Josef and back. Thirty-five adds Fox and a second valley. An hour crosses the Main Divide to Aoraki with two landings. Pick what matters and we will point at one.
See it before you pay for it
What twenty minutes over the ice looks like
The clips below are the flight, not a promo reel. You lift off from a pad in the village, climb the valley in about four minutes, and then the ground stops being ground: the icefall arrives as a wall of blue-white blocks the size of houses, split by crevasses you could drop a bus into. Then the machine sets down on the névé at the top and the doors open onto snow that has never had a footprint on it.
Side by side
Twenty, twenty-five or sixty minutes
The three lengths are not versions of the same flight. Twenty minutes is Franz Josef and a landing on snow beside it. Twenty-five puts the machine down on the ice itself. An hour crosses the Main Divide to Aoraki Mount Cook and the Tasman and lands twice. The price per minute barely moves; what moves is how much of the Southern Alps you actually see.
Swipe the table sideways →
| 20-Minute Snow Landing | TOP PICK25-Minute Alpine Landing | One Hour, Four Glaciers | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per person | $213 | $219 | $495 |
| Time in the air | 20 minutes | 25 minutes | 1 hour |
| Cost per hour | $639.00 | $525.60 | $495.00 |
| Landings | One, on a snowfield | One, on the ice | Two |
| What you see | Franz Josef and its icefall | Franz Josef and the Southern Alps | Four glaciers, Aoraki and the Tasman |
| Crosses the Main Divide | No | No | Yes, to Aoraki |
| Out of the machine | A few minutes | Ten minutes or so | Twice, longer |
| Rating | 4.9 · 56 | 4.8 · 693 | 4.8 · 30 |
| Best for | The lowest price up | Standing on the glacier | Seeing the whole range |
| Check dates | Book this one→ | Check dates |
TOP PICK
25-Minute Alpine Landing
$219- Time in the air
- 25 minutes
- Cost per hour
- $525.60
- Landings
- One, on the ice
- What you see
- Franz Josef and the Southern Alps
- Crosses the Main Divide
- No
- Rating
- 4.8 · 693
- Best for
- Standing on the glacier
Free cancellation up to 24 h · Reserve now, pay later
20-Minute Snow Landing
$213- Time in the air
- 20 minutes
- Cost per hour
- $639.00
- Landings
- One, on a snowfield
- What you see
- Franz Josef and its icefall
- Crosses the Main Divide
- No
- Rating
- 4.9 · 56
- Best for
- The lowest price up
One Hour, Four Glaciers
$495- Time in the air
- 1 hour
- Cost per hour
- $495.00
- Landings
- Two
- What you see
- Four glaciers, Aoraki and the Tasman
- Crosses the Main Divide
- Yes, to Aoraki
- Rating
- 4.8 · 30
- Best for
- Seeing the whole range
Verdict
Book the 25-minute flight
It is the shortest flight that shuts down on the ice, and that is the whole decision. The twenty-minute option lands on a snowfield beside the glacier rather than on it, so you fly all this way and photograph the icefall from a distance. The extra $6 buys five more minutes, a landing on the glacier itself, and the lowest cost per minute on the page.
Check dates and availability→Before you book
You cannot walk onto it any more
The Franz Josef you see in old photographs came down almost to the rainforest. It has pulled back several kilometres up its own valley since, and in 2012 the terminal face collapsed and took the walking route with it. The valley track now ends at a roped viewpoint a long way short of the ice. Nothing you can pay for on the ground changes this — the only way onto the glacier is to fly onto it.
Two-minute check
Will your flight actually go?
More flights here are lost to weather than to anything else, and the number of nights you have in the village decides your odds more than the operator you pick. Answer three questions and find out now instead of at the hangar.
How many nights are you in Franz Josef?This decides your odds more than anything else
What do you weigh?Seats are allocated by weight on small machines
How long do you want to be in the air?Length is the only real variable
Answer the three questions above
You'll get a straight yes or no, the flight that fits your day, and the specific thing that would trip you up at check-in.
Six ways to see it
2,139 reviews across twelve Franz Josef flights
Ratings are the operators’ own numbers on GetYourGuide, shown as published. We do not write reviews and we do not average other people’s into a score of our own.
4.8
★★★★★
Based on 2,139
verified reviews
5 ★88%
4 ★9%
3 ★2%
2 ★1%
1 ★0%
All twelve Franz Josef flights on this page, rated on GetYourGuide.
Read all 2,139→🚁
25-Minute Alpine Landing
From $219 · 693 reviews
★★★★★
The flight most people end up taking
Twenty-five minutes over the ice pinnacles and crevasses of Franz Josef, then an alpine landing in the Southern Alps. Rated 4.8 across 693 reviews, more than any other flight leaving this village.
⛰
20-Minute Snow Landing
From $213 · 20 minutes
★★★★☆
The cheapest way onto the ice
Twenty minutes up the valley and a snow landing at the top of the icefall. It is the shortest flight in the village and it still does the one thing that matters: it puts you on ice you cannot reach on foot.
🏔
One Hour, Four Glaciers
From $495 · two landings
★★★★★
If you only do one thing on the West Coast
A full hour, four glaciers and two separate landings, crossing the Main Divide to Aoraki Mount Cook and the Tasman. Twice the money of the short flight and roughly four times the country.
🚶
The Franz Josef valley walk
Free · about 90 minutes return
★★★☆☆
The free version, and its honest limit
A well-made track up the riverbed to a viewpoint. It is worth doing and it does not get you anywhere near the ice: the barrier sits a long way short of the terminal face, and rockfall closes the last section regularly.
⛔
Walking onto the glacier from the valley
No longer possible · since 2012
★☆☆☆☆
The thing every old guidebook still describes
Guided walks used to start at the terminal face and climb onto the ice. After the face collapsed and the glacier retreated, that route stopped existing. Anything describing a guided ice walk that starts from the car park is out of date.
🌋
35 Minutes over Two Glaciers
From $274 · 527 reviews
★★★★★
Both glaciers, if you are only here once
Thirty-five minutes over Franz Josef and Fox with a landing between them, rated 4.9 across 527 reviews. The two valleys look nothing alike from the air and this is the cheapest way to settle that argument yourself.
What it really costs
There is no cheap way onto this glacier
Every operator in the village publishes one fare and charges it everywhere — the office on the main road, the booking platforms, the hotel desk. What changes is whether the machine flies at all on the day you booked.
Swipe sideways →
| Where you book | Price | Risk | Cancellation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Online in advance | $213–$827 | None — your seat is held | Free up to 24 hours |
| At the office in the village | Same price, no discount | Only what is unsold that morning | Desk policy, usually stricter |
| Waiting for a weather window | Same price | High — everybody rebooks onto the first clear morning | Refunded if they cancel |
What the listing doesn’t show you
- How much of it is climbing. A twenty-minute flight spends its first five minutes gaining height out of the valley and its last four coming back down. The time actually over ice is shorter than the number on the ticket.
- The weather record. Franz Josef sits under one of the wettest skies in New Zealand. Operators fly when they can; a listing never says how many mornings they cannot.
- You will be weighed. At check-in, in front of everyone. Seats are allocated by balance, not by who booked first.
- Photographs. There is no photographer. What you come home with is what you shot through the window and in the ten minutes on the snow.
What is genuinely included
- The flight itself, with a landing on snow or ice on every option here
- Ten to fifteen minutes on the ground at the landing site, boots on the snow
- A window seat — the machines carry five or six and nobody sits in a middle
- Pilot commentary over headsets, and the headsets themselves
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before, and a full refund if weather stands you down
The honest answer
Is a Franz Josef helicopter flight worth it?
Two hundred and thirteen dollars for twenty minutes is a lot of money for twenty minutes and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What you are buying is the only access there is. The valley walk stops at a rope a long way short of the ice, and it has done since 2012.
What makes it worth it
- It is the only access there is — the valley route has been gone since 2012
- Every flight on this page lands; you get out and stand on the ice
- Small machines, so everybody has a window and nobody sits in a middle seat
- The icefall is unrecognisable from above: blue, broken and enormous
- Cancelled flights are refunded, so the risk is your time, not your money
Keep in mind
- The shortest flight is $213 for twenty minutes
- Weather cancels flights here more often than anywhere else you will book
- One night in the village is a coin toss; two is a plan
- Seats are allocated by weight and the manifest is not negotiable
- An overcast day flattens the ice to grey and there is no refund for dull light
The flight, minute by minute
Pad to névé and back
Check the forecast, not the app
The office watches cloud base and wind on the névé, not rain in the village. A wet morning in town is often a flyable morning up top, and a bright one can be grounded.
Check in at the office
Main road, five minutes from anywhere in the village. They weigh you here, not to be rude but because seat allocation on a small machine is arithmetic.
Safety briefing and the walk out
How to approach the machine, where not to walk, how to fasten the harness. Two minutes, and then you are on the pad.
Lift-off and the valley
Up over the terminal face in about ninety seconds. The grey rubble below is what the glacier left behind when it retreated.
The icefall
The ground stops being ground. Blocks of blue-white ice the size of houses, crevasses you could drop a bus into, and no scale to judge any of it by.
The landing
The machine sets down on the névé and the doors open. Snow with no footprints, silence with the rotor off, and about five minutes to stand in it.
Back on the pad
Down the valley in half the time it took to climb. You are back in the village before the coffee you ordered has gone cold.
Best time of day
The first two flights of the morning
Air over a glacier heats through the day. By early afternoon the valley has begun to move and cloud builds against the Main Divide, which is why the afternoon slots are the ones that get stood down. The first two departures of the day fly in still air, the light is still coming in low across the icefall, and if the weather closes in later you have already flown. Book the earliest slot the operator offers on the first full day of your stay, not the last — that leaves you somewhere to move it to.
On the flight
What you actually see
The icefall
Blocks the size of houses. From the valley floor you cannot see any of this.
The landing
Every flight on this page sets down. The névé at the top has no footprints on it.
The blue
The colour is not a filter. Compressed ice absorbs everything except blue and sends that back.
The Divide
The longer flights cross to the eastern side and the whole Main Divide opens up.
What it's like
Ninety seconds of farmland, then the scale problem
The first thing that goes wrong is the weather, and the second is your understanding of it. You look out of the window in the village, see rain on the road and assume the day is lost. The office is looking at something else entirely: cloud base at two thousand metres and wind on the névé. Those two things decide it, and they are frequently not what the valley is doing.
So the morning goes like this. You ring, they say hold, they say come in at eleven, and at eleven they weigh you. Not out of nosiness — a small machine balances by seat, and the manifest is arithmetic rather than preference. You will sit where the numbers put you.
The briefing is two minutes and is mostly about not walking into the tail rotor. Then the doors close, the note of the engine changes, and the pad drops away.
For ninety seconds it is farmland and river. Then the terminal face, which is the part nobody photographs: a grey wall of rubble-covered ice at the end of a valley of grey stones. This is what is left after the retreat, and it is why the walking route stopped existing.
And then the icefall, and the scale problem starts. There is nothing in the frame to measure against. Blocks that look like sugar cubes are the size of houses. A crevasse that reads as a crack would swallow a bus. Your eye keeps trying to make it small and failing.
The blue is the thing people do not believe until they see it. Ice under that much pressure has had the air squeezed out of it, and what comes back out is a blue with nothing else in it — not sky blue, not sea blue, a colour that only exists inside a glacier.
Then the machine slows, tips, and sets down on the névé at the top. The rotor winds down and the silence arrives all at once. Snow in every direction with no footprints in it, the Southern Alps standing behind, and five minutes to stand in a place that has no path leading to it.
The flight down takes half as long as the flight up, and you are back in the village inside half an hour. What you paid for was those five minutes on the snow, and everybody who has stood there knows it.
While you're in the village
The other three flights people book here
Most people arrive planning the twenty-minute flight and leave having booked something longer. These three are where they end up: the two-glacier loop, the three-glacier loop, and the one with a whisky poured over glacier ice at the top.
Practical
Plan the flight
Five things decide how it goes: how many nights you have here, the hour you book, the weight on the manifest, what you are wearing, and whether you understood the cancellation policy before you paid.
Cloud base, not rain
The office watches the ceiling at two thousand metres and the wind on the névé. Rain in the village means very little.
The window is a few hours
A flight needs a clear enough slot to climb, land and return. Those slots open and shut through the day.
Morning beats afternoon
Air is usually calmest early. Most operators fly their fullest schedule before noon.
They ring you
If you are staying in the village, leave a number. Cancellations and call-backs both come by phone.
Cancelled means refunded
If they scrub the flight you get the money back. What you do not get back is the day.
Do not book the last morning
A single-night stay is a coin toss. Two nights turns it into a plan.
You will be weighed
At check-in, on scales, in front of people. It is arithmetic, not judgement.
Seats go by balance
Where you sit is decided by the manifest. Nobody gets to choose the front.
Over 125 kg needs a call
Most operators can take you, usually by selling a second seat. Ring before you book online.
Small machines, all windows
Four to six passengers. There is no bad seat, only a less good one.
Children count as passengers
Every body on board is on the manifest, whatever its size.
Bags stay behind
Cameras and phones come; rucksacks do not.
One price everywhere
Office, platform or hotel desk, the fare is the same. Booking ahead buys a slot, not a discount.
Free cancellation to 24 hours
Standard on every flight on this page.
Book the first morning of your stay
If it scrubs you still have days left. If you book the last one you have nothing.
Longer flights sell out first
The hour-long flights with two landings run less often and fill earlier.
Ask what the landing site is
Not every landing is on the glacier itself; some are on a snowfield beside it.
Check the machine
Six-seat and four-seat machines fly the same routes and feel different.
Franz Josef village
On State Highway 6, five hours from Christchurch and four from Queenstown.
The pads are in the village
You do not go to an airport. Every operator flies from the main road.
No transfer needed
Everything is walkable if you are staying in town.
Fox is 25 minutes south
A different valley with its own operators, and a shorter flight to the same ice.
Nothing runs late
The last flights leave mid-afternoon in winter. Do not plan an evening arrival.
Fuel up before you come
The stretch of highway either side of the village is long and empty.
Best time
When to fly
Flights run all year and the West Coast weather decides how often. What changes is the number of flyable mornings in the month, not the price.
Feb – Apr
The window
The most settled air of the year. Late summer into autumn gives the highest proportion of flyable mornings and the clearest views of the Main Divide.
Nov – Jan
Long days, busy village
Long daylight and plenty of departures, but this is peak season: book ahead and expect the first clear morning after a bad spell to be fully committed.
Sep – Oct
Spring, snow on top
Deep snow on the névé makes the landing sites look their best. Fronts still come through quickly, so keep a spare day.
May – Aug
Winter gamble
Short days, cold and the lowest proportion of flyable mornings. When it is clear it is the best light of the year, and it is clear less often.
Worth knowing
Six things that aren't in the listing
01
The walking route onto the glacier has not existed since 2012. The terminal face collapsed and the ice retreated; guided walks from the valley floor stopped. Any page describing one is out of date.
02
Rain in the village is not the forecast that matters. Cloud base and wind on the névé decide it, and a grey morning in town is often flyable up top.
03
Book the first morning of your stay, never the last. If it scrubs you still have days in hand. This single decision changes your odds more than the operator you pick.
04
You will be weighed at check-in. Seats are allocated by balance on a small machine and the manifest is not open to negotiation.
05
The blue is real. Compressed glacier ice has the air squeezed out of it and reflects a blue that does not exist anywhere else. Photographs undersell it.
06
Ask where the landing site is. Some flights land on the glacier, some on a snowfield beside it. Both are spectacular; they are not the same photograph.
Round out the trip
Booked alongside
Go deeper
More on flying over Franz Josef
Common questions
Franz Josef glacier helicopter, answered
How much is a Franz Josef glacier helicopter flight?
Twenty minutes with a snow landing starts at $213. Twenty-five minutes with an alpine landing is $219, thirty-five minutes over both glaciers $274, and a full hour with two landings $495.
Can you walk onto Franz Josef Glacier without a helicopter?
No. The terminal face collapsed in 2012 and the glacier has retreated beyond any safe route from the valley floor. The valley walk reaches a viewpoint a long way short of the ice, and every guided hour on the glacier now begins with a flight.
Do all Franz Josef helicopter flights land?
Every flight on this page includes at least one landing. Some set down on the glacier itself, some on a snowfield beside it, and the hour-long flights land twice. Ask which before you book if the photograph is the point.
How often are flights cancelled?
Often. This is one of the wettest inhabited places in New Zealand and a flight needs a clear enough window to climb, land and return. The practical answer is to book the first morning of your stay rather than the last, and to keep a spare day.
What length of flight should I book?
Twenty-five minutes if you want Franz Josef and a landing. Thirty-five if you want Fox as well. An hour if you want to cross the Main Divide to Aoraki Mount Cook and land twice. The price per minute barely moves; the amount of country does.
Will I be weighed before the flight?
Yes, at check-in. Seats on a small machine are allocated by balance, so the manifest decides where you sit. Over 125 kg, ring the operator before booking online.
Franz Josef or Fox — which flight is better?
Franz Josef has the steeper icefall and more machines in the air. Fox is longer, flatter and quieter, and its village is smaller. The two-glacier flights settle the argument by showing you both in thirty-five minutes.
Free · no account needed
Two days on the glacier coast — the plan we'd follow
One PDF: which morning to hold for the flight, what to do with a rained-out afternoon, and how to get from Queenstown or Christchurch without losing the day. Built from the same sources as this page.
- Which flight length actually suits what you came to see
- Franz Josef against Fox, decided, with both sets of numbers
- The wet-weather list — what still works when nothing flies
- Where to stand for the glacier when the helicopters are grounded
Check your inbox
The plan is on its way. If it isn't there in a minute, look in Promotions.
Why trust this page
How we put this together
Checked, not guessed
Flight lengths, landing counts and prices are read off the live listings. The glacier retreat figures come from the Department of Conservation and from NIWA’s annual end-of-summer snowline survey.
How we pick
Every flight running out of this village is on the page, from the twenty-minute one to the ninety-minute one, in price order. Nobody pays to be featured.
Written for one decision
This page answers one question: how long a flight to book, and whether to fly at all. If a section did not help with that, we cut it.
The walking route, stated plainly
The terminal face collapsed in 2012 and there has been no walk-on route since. We say so rather than leave people to find out at the car park.
The answer
Twenty-five minutes, with a landing
At $219 it is a few dollars over the cheapest flight in the village and it buys the thing the cheapest one does not always include: the machine shut down on snow, the rotors stopped, and ten minutes of standing on a glacier you cannot otherwise reach. Take the first departure of the morning and keep a spare day behind it.
Check dates and availability→ Free cancellation up to 24 hours · Reserve now, pay later