Jake Nelson

Flight AB1523, Bonza’s inaugural service from its third base, departed the Gold Coast at 9:12am local time on board the airline’s first 737 MAX 8, VH-UIK ‘Bazza’, touching down in Townsville shortly before 11am. It is the first of 14 planned routes to be introduced over the end-of-year period.

The airline will deploy its 787-8 Dreamliner fleet on the route starting on 1 April, the first time it has flown direct from Sydney to Osaka in 15 years. Flights will operate three times per week, adding more than 100,000 low-cost seats between the two cities.

Registered VH-X4A, the new aircraft has been given an Aboriginal art livery featuring over 20,000 dots. The paint job took around 100 painters two weeks to complete at Airbus’ facility in Mirabel, Canada.

In a Q&A session at the AFR Infrastructure Summit on Tuesday, the Minister said she “did not take the commercial interests of either Qantas or Virgin into consideration” when making the decision, and continued to stress that it was based on “the national interest”.

Passengers on IndiGo’s Singapore flights will now be able to connect seamlessly on Qantas flights to Melbourne, with Sydney, Perth and Brisbane connections to also come online in the next few weeks.

Dubbed Indoor Live View (ILV), the technology – compatible with both Android and iOS – will provide arrows, directions, and distance markers on passengers’ phone cameras to guide them to gates, retail outlets, baggage claim, restrooms, and other points of interest. Wheelchair-accessible options and audio directions will also be available.