The increase will include 57 additional return services per week on the ‘golden triangle’ of Sydney– Melbourne–Brisbane, and adding seats to transcontinental services to-and-from Perth using the airline’s Airbus A330 fleet.

The airline is likely to face huge criticism if it goes ahead with the decision to allow the credits to expire, given airfares are now at record levels and capacity is still down on pre-pandemic levels.

The investigation was conducted against the backdrop of concerns over increased noise following the construction of Brisbane’s new parallel runway, which was completed in July 2020.

According to new BITRE data released by the Department of Transport, the ‘best discount’ airfare index is at 112 for December despite being at just 48 in April.