Jake Nelson

The codeshare will see Air India, which operates daily Dreamliner flights from Delhi to Sydney and Melbourne, add its code to Virgin flights allowing onward connections to 16 cities across Australia and New Zealand.

The competition and consumer watchdog, which granted an interim authorisation to the deal last year that has allowed Virgin and Qatar Airways to sell tickets on the flights, believes the arrangement is “likely to result in public benefits and is unlikely to result in any public detriment”.

The 3,343-square-metre Hangar 83, slated to open in 2026, will be twice the size of Textron’s current maintenance facility at Essendon Fields, and will be located on the southern apron to eliminate the need for use of the airport’s jet crossing. Construction is scheduled to begin next month.

While the new service will begin on schedule, with the first flight slated for 30 March, it will initially operate four times per week on 737s rather than five times per week on the newer A220s, with the A220s now set to take over the route on 26 October.

In total, 3,393,977 passengers travelled through Melbourne’s terminals last month, compared to 3,322,940 in December 2019. This also included a record 1,238,829 international passengers, 671,135 of whom were arrivals.

The Flying Kangaroo’s regional arm is replacing older 50-seat Q300s out of Adelaide with the newer, larger planes, a switch enabled by its move last year to purchase 14 mid-life Q400s to transition its turboprop fleet to a single aircraft type.