Jake Nelson

From 15 December 2025 to 26 January 2026, the Flying Kangaroo will increase its trans-Tasman seats by up to 20 per cent, with 60,000 extra seats compared to the same time last year – or around 3.3 million seats in total.

The Hong Kong-based carrier is the last to bring back its pre-COVID Adelaide route, which ended in March 2020. It will operate a seasonal service starting 11 November, flying three times per week on its 280-seat A350-900 fleet until 27 March next year.

Both international and domestic figures rose year-on-year, with 1,026,386 international and 2,084,257 domestic passengers – up 16 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively – for a new April record of 3.11 million passengers. The news comes soon after Australia marked its best-ever month for international travel.

Speaking exclusively to the Australian Aviation Podcast, Greg Foran, who will depart Air New Zealand in October, said that with the benefit of hindsight, one thing he would have done differently was to “burn more cash” rather than try to cut costs.

Starting in October, Qantas will end its Proserpine services and Jetstar its Hamilton Island services, with each airline to instead add more flights to their respective destinations: Jetstar will add up to nine Proserpine flights per week and QantasLink a new Melbourne-Hamilton Island service.

As reported in The Australian, the union’s barrister, Noel Hutley SC, questioned Qantas’ move to have chief people officer Catherine Walsh front the court in Hudson’s place, given she joined Qantas in 2024 and was not involved in the illegal outsourcing of ground workers during the pandemic.