Jake Nelson

Functioning as a tag to the Taiwanese carrier’s existing Melbourne–Taipei service, the A350-900 flights, which will operate every day except Monday and Saturday, are expected to add more than 3,000 seats per week between Melbourne and Auckland in time for the summer holiday period.

The Flying Kangaroo, which last operated a seasonal service from Sydney to Sapporo in Hokkaido, Japan, between December 2019 and March 2020, said it had been assessing plans to restart the route this year, but did not proceed due to labour and other supply shortages at the destination.

BITRE data for May 2024 shows that just 1.1 per cent of Jetstar flights were cancelled last month, lower than Virgin Australia at 2.1 per cent and Qantas and QantasLink at 2.6 per cent, though Rex and regional carrier Hinterland Aviation had the best cancellation rates at 0.8 per cent.

The $480 million, seven-year deal will see four of Team Global Express’ 737-300 and 737-400 aircraft replaced with Texel’s 737-800BCFs under a wet-leasing arrangement, allowing more parcels to be picked up and delivered at regional destinations including Port Hedland, Norfolk Island and Karratha.

The service, announced in November, is the first to connect the two destinations and took off for its maiden flight on 20 June. It will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays using A320-200s, adding more than 1,100 seats per week between Melbourne (Tullamarine) and Hervey Bay.

The airline will base an extra A320 in Christchurch from December, bringing its total NZ fleet to eight, and launch new routes from Auckland to Sunshine Coast and Christchurch to Cairns, as well as increasing capacity on domestic routes including Christchurch–Auckland and Auckland–Wellington.