Jetstar and Air New Zealand deliver travel bubble 400 days in the making
19 Apr, 2021 12:00 AM
3 minutes to read
Quarantine-free arrivals from Australia and the Cook Islands, will be given their own arrivals lounge at Auckland Airport. Photo / Alex Burton
Quarantine-free arrivals from Australia and the Cook Islands, will be given their own arrivals lounge at Auckland Airport. Photo / Alex Burton
NZ Herald
The first quarantine-free flight from Australia has arrived at Auckland Airport, after 400 days of planning.
Jetstar service JQ201 from Sydney is the first arrival from Australia in over a year that will allow passengers to bypass a lengthy MIQ stay and fees.
Transtasman bubble: Qantas, Jetstar bookings strong, long haul flights from October
15 Apr, 2021 05:24 AM
4 minutes to read
Qantas turns 100 - the airline through the century. Video / Supplied
Aviation, tourism and energy writer for the NZ Heraldgrant.bradley@nzherald.co.nz@gbradleynz
Qantas says demand for bubble-free transtasman travel from Monday has been strong and it has plans to add more flights next months.
The company said Qantas and Jetstar have seen strong demand since the two-way transtasman bubble was announced with tens of thousands of bookings made in the first few days.
The rate of Frequent Flyers using Qantas Points to book seats on the Tasman was 80 times higher than normal for the first four hours for the airline that said when quarantine-free travel was announced that it would fly up to 83 per cent of pre-Covid capacity.
The cheapest flights on the Jetstar menu are between Melbourne and Adelaide, with seats available from $32 each way.
Qantas also has flights from Sydney to Hamilton Island up for grabs from $117, while a seat on the Melbourne to Hamilton Island flight will set you back at least $121.
Virgin Australia also has half-price flights from Sydney and Melbourne to Hamilton Island available from $103. A Virgin Australia plane takes off at Sydney Airport. Photo: Christian Gilles
The Federal Government’s support package includes cut-price 800,000 return flights to selected destinations.
The cheap flights started appearing on the websites of Qantas, Virgin Australia, Jetstar and some regional airlines just after midnight on April 1.
Date Time
Domestic airlines look for growth opportunities amid continuing challenges
Australia’s domestic airlines are gradually recovering from historically low passenger numbers, but snap border closures continue to create challenges for the industry.
The ACCC’s third Airline Competition in Australia report, released today, shows total passenger numbers for December 2020 were 41 per cent of pre-COVID numbers, up from the 13 per cent of pre-pandemic levels reported in September 2020.
The gradual recovery of the industry over the quarter to December 2020 meant air traffic also started to return to pre-pandemic domestic patterns. While intrastate routes accounted for the vast majority of passengers throughout 2020 because of closed borders, 69 per cent of passengers in December 2020 flew on interstate routes, up from 26 per cent in September 2020.
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