Every price, per minute
The cheapest helicopter flight out of Franz Josef is $213 for twenty minutes with a snow landing. The most expensive is $827 for ninety. Between those two numbers sit ten more flights, and once you divide each one by its minutes in the air the whole price list turns out to be far flatter than it looks. This page does that division for you and then says where the money actually goes.
Quick answer
The short answer. Expect $213 to $274 for the flight most people book, and about $525 to $640 an hour whichever length you choose. The Franz Josef glacier helicopter price you see online is the price you pay: there is no cheaper walk-up rate at the hangar, and no meaningful discount for booking direct.
Every trip, current fare
Every flight in price order, with the cost per hour worked out. The right-hand column is the one to read: it shows that the longer flights are not a premium product, they are the same product sold in a larger quantity.
| Flight | Time in the air | Price | Landings | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20-Minute Snow LandingThe cheapest way onto the ice | 20 min | $213 | One, on snow | $639.00 | 4.9 · 56 |
| 25-Minute Snow LandingTwenty-five minutes, quieter operator | 25 min | $213 | One, on snow | $511.20 | 4.9 · 7 |
| 25-Minute Alpine LandingThe most-reviewed flight in the village | 25 min | $219 | One, on the ice | $525.60 | 4.8 · 693 |
| 30 Minutes: Franz Josef & TasmanFranz Josef and Aoraki in half an hour | 30 min | $221 | One, on snow | $442.00 | 4.8 · 84 |
| 30 Minutes: Fox & Franz JosefFox and Franz Josef in thirty minutes | 30 min | $254 | One, on snow | $508.00 | 4.9 · 152 |
| 35 Minutes with Snow LandingTwo glaciers and a snow landing | 35 min | $268 | One, on snow | $459.43 | 4.7 · 402 |
| 35 Minutes over Two GlaciersThe upgrade most people end up taking | 35 min | $274 | One, on the névé | $469.71 | 4.9 · 527 |
| 40-Minute Grand TourForty minutes and a wider circuit | 40 min | $340 | One, on snow | $510.00 | 4.4 · 21 |
| 45 Minutes, Three GlaciersThree glaciers and a high landing | 45 min | $384 | One, high on the névé | $512.00 | 4.8 · 164 |
| Shackleton 50-Minute FlightWhisky poured over glacier ice | 50 min | $440 | One, with a glass | $528.00 | 5.0 · 2 |
| One Hour, Four GlaciersFour glaciers, two landings, one hour | 1 h | $495 | Two | $495.00 | 4.8 · 30 |
| The Grand Adventure, 90 MinutesNinety minutes, the longest there is | 1.5 h | $827 | Two, longer | $551.33 | 5.0 · 1 |
Where the money goes
The number that surprises people is the cost per hour, not the ticket price. At roughly five hundred to six hundred and fifty US dollars an hour, a seat in a Franz Josef helicopter is not far off what a seat in a scenic helicopter costs anywhere else in the world. The ticket looks expensive because you are buying a fraction of an hour, not because the hour is unusual.
Inside that hour sits a turbine engine burning fuel that has been trucked the length of the West Coast, a maintenance schedule counted in hours rather than years, two pilots’ worth of currency requirements for a single-pilot operation, and a landing site that has to be reassessed every time the snow moves. There is also the cancellation rate: an operator that flies half the days it planned to has to cover its fixed costs out of the days it does fly.
None of that makes it cheap. It does explain why the Franz Josef glacier helicopter price has not moved much in either direction for years, and why the four operators sit within a few dollars of each other at every length. There is no discount operator here, and an unusually low price would be a reason to look harder rather than to book faster.
The extras
Four things people budget for and one they should not.
Most operators cap a rear seat at around 120 kg and a front seat lower, and above that you buy a second seat at roughly half the flight price. It is not a penalty, it is the aircraft balance. Declare it when you book and the cost is predictable.
The village is five and a half hours from Queenstown and about the same from Christchurch. If your trip exists solely for the flight, the transport is the larger line in the budget.
Given the cancellation rate, one night is a gamble and two is a plan. Budget the extra night as part of the flight rather than as accommodation, because that is what it is.
You will be standing on snow. Nobody hires you a jacket for a scenic flight the way they do for a heli-hike. A fleece and a windproof layer out of your own bag costs nothing; buying them in the village does not.
There is no photographer and no photo package on a scenic flight. Whatever you shoot is yours, free, and nobody meets you at the door with a print.
Wondering whether the extra minutes are worth the extra money at all?
Is the flight worth it→Cheaper ways
Fly early in your stay. This is the only tip on the page that reliably saves money. A cancelled flight on your last morning is a flight you either lose or rebook at the far end of a five-hour drive. A cancelled flight on your first morning is a flight you take on your second.
Take the twenty-minute option and put the difference into a second night. Two chances at a $213 flight beats one chance at a $495 one, if the budget only stretches to one of those.
Book the shoulder months. March and April are the best flying weather of the year and the accommodation around them is cheaper than January. The flights themselves are the same price, but everything you buy around them is not.
Do not wait for a walk-up deal. There is no standby rate. Seats that go unsold go unsold, and turning up at the hangar on the day gets you the same price with fewer slots to choose from.
Ignore the exchange rate noise. Listings here are shown in US dollars for comparison; you are charged in New Zealand dollars. The number on your card will move a little with the rate on the day and there is nothing to optimise there.
Book direct
The cheapest, the most booked, the common upgrade, and the one photographers take.
★ 4.9 · 56 reviews
★ 4.8 · 693 reviews
★ 4.9 · 527 reviews
★ 4.8 · 30 reviews
Common questions
From $213 for twenty minutes with a snow landing. The most booked flight, twenty-five minutes with an alpine landing, is $219. Thirty-five minutes over both glaciers is $274 and a full hour with two landings is $495.
They fly the same ice with the same class of machine under the same maintenance and weather constraints. Fuel comes up the same road. The result is that the Franz Josef glacier helicopter price sits inside a narrow band at every length, and there is no discount operator in the village.
No. The online price and the walk-up price are the same, and booking ahead gets you the morning slots, which are the ones that fly. There is no standby rate.
Above the seat limit — typically around 120 kg for a rear seat — you buy a comfort seat at roughly half the flight price. It is about balancing the aircraft, and declaring it at booking is cheaper and less awkward than discovering it at the scales.
Everything, if the operator stands the flight down for weather. If you cancel yourself, the listings here are free to cancel up to twenty-four hours before departure.
Per minute, marginally. The cost per hour is close to flat from twenty minutes to ninety, so a longer flight is not a worse deal — it simply costs more in total and shows you more country. Choose by how much you want to see, not by the per-minute figure.
Go deeper
Twelve helicopter flights out of one village, from twenty minutes to ninety.
VerdictTwelve flights ranked for one decision, with a straight answer at the end.
LandingsWhich flights actually put the machine down, and what the difference is.
LengthThe only real variable, and how much country each length buys you.
Which oneTwo glaciers, twenty-five minutes apart, and the flights that show you both.
WeatherHow often flights are stood down here, and how to build a trip around it.
