Jake Nelson

The regional airline will operate early-morning flights with its 19-seat Jetstream 32 turboprop aircraft four days per week, departing at 7am from Newcastle on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. While Jetstar operates a daily service, it only offers afternoon and nighttime departures.

The two airlines will between them increase available seats to and from the Top End to more than 2.3 million in 2025, with more flights between Darwin and Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, and Sydney. It comes as Virgin Australia axes its seasonal Darwin–Adelaide service citing low demand.

While WSI is a Commonwealth project with no involvement from the NSW Department of Transport, Jo Haylen as minister has overseen transport links to the airport site including its metro, which is slated to open alongside the airport in late 2026.

The Regional Airfare Zone Cap (RAZC) scheme will receive another $4 million in funding, allowing it to continue into the middle of 2026, a move which follows a successful three-year pilot program.

The carrier will suspend services from Sydney to Inverell and Narrabri as of 1 March 2025, citing “reduced demand”, while ramping up flights to Armidale, Coffs Harbour, and Tamworth.

Australia’s largest international gateway saw 11 million passengers in total across the three months to December 2024, up five per cent on the same period in 2023 but only 94.4 per cent of the fourth quarter of 2019.