QANTAS Airways and Jetstar Airways will restart flying to all pre-COVID 19 destinations in New Zealand when the two-way Trans-Tasman bubble opens later this month.

The national carrier will also launch two new routes direct from Auckland to Cairns and the Gold Coast, providing travelers with more options for holidays in Queensland and New Zealand.

From April 19, 2021, Jetstar and QANTAS will initially operate up to 122 return flights per week across the Tasman on 15 routes, offering more than 52,000 seats each week.

As part of the existing one-way bubble, the Qantas Group has been operating less than 3 per cent of its pre-COVID capacity on the Trans-Tasman. Flights announced will see this increase to 83 percent – a level that reflects a high level of expected demand for what will be Australia’s only international destination for at least the next six months, moderated by the fact that international tourists (beyond Australia and New Zealand) normally account for about 20 percent of the passengers flying between the two countries.

QANTAS and Jetstar schedules

Jetstar will initially operate to Auckland from Melbourne, Gold Coast and Sydney using its Airbus A320 aircraft, with schedules of both airlines connecting on to Jetstar’s New Zealand domestic network of more than 120 return flights per week to five destinations. Jetstar will resume flights on the remainder of its pre-COVID routes from the middle of the year.

QANTAS’ schedule includes year-round direct flights to Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown including direct flights from Brisbane and Melbourne to Queenstown, routes which Qantas traditionally only operated seasonally for the ski season peak.

A new daily service from the Gold Coast to Auckland will commence when the bubble opens, marking QANTAS’ first ever international flights from Gold Coast Airport. The new Cairns-Auckland route will launch in time for the June long weekend, operating three days per week. Flights will initially operate for nine weeks until late July, and Qantas will look to add more flights beyond this period if there is demand.

QANTAS will initially operate a mix of Boeing 737-800s as well as the wide-body Airbus A330s.

Jetstar and QANTAS will look to grow capacity and the number of routes as the market recovers.

Top Copyright Photo: Jetstar Airways (Australia) Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner VH-VKH (msn 36233) DPS (Pascal Simon). Image: 943879.

Jetstar aircraft slide show: