Jake Nelson

EY Australia will now have until 5 December to wrap up the second sale process, which was slated to end on 30 June. It is the second extension to the administration period, and comes as the administrator indicates potential buyers are waiting in the wings.

The Kiwi flag carrier will add 130,000 trans-Tasman and 25,000 Pacific seats between October 2025 and March 2026, representing additional flights as well as an increase in the use of wide-body jets. The airline will offer a total of 1.7 million seats between Australia and New Zealand this summer.

Australia’s second largest domestic airline group was listed as VGN at $2.90 per share, with the price quickly rising to $3.13 per share within the first 30 minutes. This represented a market capitalisation of around $2.3 billion, with 30.2 per cent of shares put up for sale.

Two Virgin flights to Doha were diverted en route after Qatar temporarily closed its airspace due to an Iranian attack on a US military base in the country, while one Qantas flight to London was diverted to Singapore and another flight to Paris turned back to Perth.

May 2025 marks the second month in a row that average reliability figures across all participating airlines have cleared the long-term averages, analysis by Australian Aviation can reveal, as Virgin Australia once again achieves a reliability trifecta.

Sydney-based Renaissance Partners, which would establish Darwin and Canberra hubs for Rex as part of its ambition to build a restored TAA as “Australia’s third airline”, was knocked back a second time by administrator EY Australia earlier this month.