Jake Nelson

The daily service, which launched only last June, will be dropped from 24 February, with Virgin to redeploy the 737 MAX 8 aircraft currently operating the route onto domestic flights.

Australia’s second largest airport saw a total of 35,127,967 travellers, including 11 million international and 24 million domestic, in FY24, up 14 per cent on FY23. International is now 96 per cent recovered on 2019 levels, with domestic at 93 per cent.

FlightRadar24 tracking data appeared to show planes grounded in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

VH-DZJ crashed in Port Phillip Bay on 19 November 2023 after colliding with another S-211, VH-DQJ, during an aerobatic formation filming flight.

Darwin Airport’s owner, Airport Development Group (ADG), is revising its Conditions of Use (COU) charges for the airport from 1 August. The airport shares runways with RAAF Base Darwin.

Rob Sharp, who left Virgin in 2019 as part of a management restructure, was CEO of Tigerair for four years before becoming Virgin’s group executive for airlines. After Virgin, he served as secretary of Transport for NSW from 2021–23, and will now serve a 12-month term at Airservices.