Qatar announced last year it would purchase a stake in the Australian airline and, as part of the agreement, would wet lease aircraft and crew to Virgin so it could fly 28 services a week to the Middle Eastern country’s capital.

Starting in October, Qantas will end its Proserpine services and Jetstar its Hamilton Island services, with each airline to instead add more flights to their respective destinations: Jetstar will add up to nine Proserpine flights per week and QantasLink a new Melbourne-Hamilton Island service.

As reported in The Australian, the union’s barrister, Noel Hutley SC, questioned Qantas’ move to have chief people officer Catherine Walsh front the court in Hudson’s place, given she joined Qantas in 2024 and was not involved in the illegal outsourcing of ground workers during the pandemic.

The four additional weekly services, starting in October, are a response to high demand on the route and will operate using Scoot’s 375-seat 787-9 Dreamliners, comprising 35 “ScootPlus” seats and 340 economy seats.