Jake Nelson

The inaugural flight QZ410 arrived in Melbourne at 5:22am on Saturday morning aboard the A320-200 PK-AZV. AirAsia, which will fly daily between Melbourne and Denpasar, is the sixth airline on the route alongside Qantas, Jetstar, Virgin Australia, Garuda Indonesia, and Batik Air Malaysia.

In its Australian Aviation Network Overview report for February 2026, the air traffic management provider noted that while international flights reached their highest growth rate in the past 12 months, long-haul demand is “expected to soften” due to the Middle East crisis.

Mount Isa hosted more than 2,300 RFDS flights and transported over 1,000 patients in the 2023/24 financial year, and the new facility replaces the aircraft hangar in use since 1964.

The carrier is set to increase domestic business and economy fares by around five per cent, Australian Aviation understands, with the current spot price of fuel hitting around double what it was at the same time last month as the Middle East conflict continues.

Speaking at a tourism forum in Melbourne, Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace said that direct Project Sunrise flights to New York and London will allow the Flying Kangaroo to turn Australia’s geographical isolation into an advantage, but will not replace its other hub-based services.

In remarks made at the Destination Australia 2026 tourism conference on Thursday, Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace said the ongoing Iran conflict has presented an “incredibly volatile and fast moving” situation which the airline is monitoring closely.