Jake Nelson

The airline has now reached a tentative agreement which will bring its 10,000 flight attendants back to work while negotiations take place “overseen by a mutually agreed-to mediator”, though it has warned that a restoration of full services may take seven to 10 days. It is unknown at this stage when Australian flights will resume.

The Canadian flag carrier, which has been a Virgin partner since 2023, flies daily to Sydney and six times per week to Brisbane from Vancouver, but has seen all flights cancelled since 16 August as cabin crew from the Canadian Union of Public Employees continue industrial action.

The weekly 737 flights, which depart Brisbane on Saturdays and return from Koror on Sundays, began in December last year, with Qantas taking over from Nauru Airlines under contract with the Australian government.

Speaking exclusively to Australian Aviation, Milne – who bought East Air after leaving Skytrans, now SmartLynx Australia, earlier this year – said the carrier’s first route from Cairns to Hamilton Island is only the beginning, with plans to become “a dominant player in the regional market” in Queensland.

The first Malaysia A330neo touched down in Sydney on Monday, with the new aircraft to operate on both daily Sydney–Kuala Lumpur flights and a third to begin on 30 August. This will bring Sydney’s Kuala Lumpur capacity to 630,000 seats per year, the highest of any airport in Australia.

The carrier, one of China’s “Big Four”, will ramp up from seven to 10 weekly Brisbane flights on 17 November, then 14 from 15 December to 22 February, before scaling back to 11 until 2 March. The extra services will be operated by the airline’s A350 aircraft.