Cairns Airport

Virgin Australia plans to discontinue its longest international route between Cairns, Australia, and Tokyo due to slow outbound Japanese travel recovery.

A total of 15 routes have been put on sale, including 11 from its Sunshine Coast base.

The airline planned the Haneda route pre-pandemic but has now changed the point of origin in Australia.

Qantas has restarted service between Brisbane in Australia and Tokyo as it continues to restore flying to Japan.

The Australian carrier will debut the aircraft between Melbourne and Cairns later this month.

The airline will initially fly from Melbourne three times per week.

The airline is dropping nine domestic routes and one international service.

Qantas said it plans to cancel the launch of a Cairns-Tokyo route following the decision.

Australia’s national airline is adding more flights from the country’s capital.

Routes analyzes some of the services returning as well as new routes being launched. This week we look at Virgin Atlantic’s move into the UK-Pakistan market; Jetstar’s resumption of Sunshine Coast-Adelaide flights; and the launch of a new Widerøe route from Bergen.

Qantas has warned that international routes are unlikely to resume before mid-2021 and urged a more flexible approach to Australian state border restrictions in order to boost domestic travel.

Following the confirmation that Tigerair Australia will cease operations, Routes looks at the Virgin Australia low-cost subsidiary’s place in the market prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Air New Zealand’s new CEO Greg Foran has warned that the airline does not expect a return to long-haul flying “of any note” until next year.

Virgin Australia is reducing domestic capacity by 90% and temporarily grounding 125 aircraft. Low-cost subsidiary Tigerair Australia has also suspended flights.

Routes Asia 2018, the only route development forum for the Asia-Pacific region, is taking place in Brisbane from 18-20 March 2018. Routesonline takes a look at some of the key statistics shaping the market.

This week: An unusual move by LOT, China Southern grows in Australia, another US link for Edelweiss.

Now a fully owned subsidiary of Virgin Australia, Tigerair Australia has recently undergone a major transformation – even ‘changing its stripes’ – in a bid to enhance its customer service and market fit.

The airline, which is a subsidiary of China’s HNA Group, will commence flights to both Cairns and the Gold Coast on January 8, 2016 on a triangular route which will operate from Hong Kong to the Gold Coast, continuing onto Cairns.

Regional Express (Rex) has announced the introduction increased flights between Cairns and Townsville from July.

Flag carrier, Philippine Airlines has announced it will launch services to Auckland from Manila later this year, marking the first time the airline has ever operated in New Zealand.

The airline, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines, launched flights to Australia in March 2012 with the introduction of flights to Darwin supporting the strategy of its parent airline and allowing the group to grow its network in the country to six destinations: Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. The introduction of the Cairns route next year is an extension of this strategy.

Low-cost carrier, Jetstar Airways has announced plans to start a Melbourne–Osaka wide-body service from the end of this month. The new Melbourne -

Asian low-cost carrier Tigerair is boosting its Australian fleet and opening a base in the Queensland capital, Brisbane. The carrier will station two

Virgin Australia has confirmed it will launch a new direct domestic service between Cairns and Weipa after the Newman Government’s decision to