Jake Nelson

The flights, operating a total of 34,650 additional seats during the season, will operate until March next year on 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, initially three times per week but ramping up to four per week from 14 December.

The Malaysian flag carrier has commenced five A330-300 flights per week, with the first MH135 service touching down aboard 9M-MTO just before 6:30am on Saturday. The service will add more than 75,000 inbound seats to Brisbane each year.

The event will take place at Surfers Paradise from 14-16 August 2026, and follows extensive beach remediation efforts by Gold Coast Council to repair the massive erosion from the cyclone that scuppered its planned August 2025 dates.

The update, pushed out by Airbus on Saturday after a recent incident involving a JetBlue A320, was required on 34 of Jetstar’s 85 A320/21 family aircraft, and caused significant delays and disruptions while the low-cost carrier rushed to implement it.

Flight JQ81 took off from Perth Airport at around 10pm on Thursday aboard the A321neo LR VH-OFU, landing in Manila at 4:30am. The low-cost carrier is now competing with Philippine Airlines on the route, with three services per week adding more than 72,000 seats a year.

The move is the latest step by the airline in its exploration of AI functionality, including a beta test of an AI trip planner and using AI-driven insights to “help forecast demand and deliver market-driven dynamic airfare pricing”.