Jake Nelson

Virgin’s regional arm, which primarily operates in Western Australia, did not cancel any of its 194 flights last month, compared to 5.5 per cent cancellations for Virgin mainline services and 5.4 per cent for the group as a whole in a month heavily impacted by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred.

The carrier will add a third daily Kuala Lumpur service for each airport starting in August, with Sydney to be served by A330-300s and Melbourne to be progressively served by A330neos. It comes ahead of the beginning of an “open skies” agreement with Malaysia in 2026.

This season has seen around 3,000 drops by both fixed-wing and rotary aircraft, up from 1,399 hours in the previous period, which the state government has attributed to longer and larger fire incidents.

The non-stop Malaysia Airlines flights will operate using an A330-300 and add 75,000 annual seats between Brisbane and Kuala Lumpur. According to Brisbane Airport, the service will generate $54 million for the local economy in its first year and offer passengers more options for travel.

The AFP has said that officers have noticed a “spike in bad behaviour” at major airports this year, and have charged 347 people with 408 offences in the year to 9 April, and 1,180 people with 1,442 criminal offences over the past 12 months.

Operating three times per week from 1 August, the service will use two of Jetstar’s new A320neo aircraft stationed at Gold Coast Airport, adding more than 58,000 low-fare seats per year.