The Deputy Prime Minister spoke to both Qantas and Virgin over the Easter weekend about the possibility of the government subsidising a number of domestic flights to maintain air links between capital cities.
Virgin Australia will suspend all domestic services from 10 April, except one return flight between Sydney and Melbourne.
A LATAM repatriation flight, chartered by the Australian government, conducted a “sweep” of Peru on Thursday, collecting 280 passengers from Lima, Cusco and Iquitos.
Virgin Australia will fly a multi-leg repatriation flight from Brisbane to Paris, via Auckland and Hong Kong, to help stranded passengers from different nations to return home.
Shares across the national aviation industry have rallied in the last week as hopes grow that Australia may have overcome the worst of the coronavirus crisis.
The development of the country's next-generation 'loyal wingman' airpower teaming system with the Royal Australian Air Force is another step closer with two major milestones achieved.