Regional airports across Australia are turning into gateways for international travel as new routes and more competition create options for travel-hungry consumers.
This month, the total number of passenger seats on offer from regional airports (on a weekly basis) rose from 18,887 a year ago to 20,145. It’s a rise of 6 per cent in the winter school holiday travel months, according to aviation analytics company Cirium, as more flights to New Zealand, Bali and the South Pacific drive up the traffic.
A sunny day at Cairns Airport, where regional travel to international destinations is growing.Credit: Cairns Airport
“Australians remain keen to head overseas despite cost-of-living pressures, with travel now firmly embedded in household budgets,” Australian Airports Association chief Simon Westaway said.
The move towards regional departures for international flights to Asia, New Zealand and the South Pacific is driven by frustration with crowded metro hubs, rising demand for overseas travel and the availability of services on smaller commercial aircraft that can fly longer distances.
“Population growth and rising demand are making regional centres more attractive for international services,” said Westaway.
Westaway said that the advances in aircraft technology “are allowing airlines to fly longer distances with smaller planes”. “This makes it more viable to launch international routes from regional airports, provided the right infrastructure is in place.”
Qantas budget arm Jetstar is flying the narrow body Airbus 321LR (standing for long range), capable of flying 7400 kilometres, which means it can be used on domestic and international routes.
Qantas’ newly delivered 321XLR narrow body has a range of 8700 kilometres.
These planes allow airlines to cater to smaller markets without requiring larger, more expensive wide-body planes that can quickly become costly if demand wavers. This capability allows network planners to fly more point-to-point (regional city Cairns to regional city Queenstown) without making connections in congested hubs such as Brisbane and Auckland.
Jetstar is selling direct flights from Newcastle to Bali, ahead of the opening of the NSW airport’s international terminal in October.
Gold Coast Airport offers flights to Bali, Hong Kong, Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, among other New Zealand destinations.
Newcastle Airport chief Linc Horton said his region of NSW was “ready to embrace international travel” from their own backyard.
Jetstar’s October launch of flights from Newcastle to Bali, according to Horton, “has delivered with strong early sales that exceeded expectations”.
“It has laid the groundwork for more international routes, and we are in active discussions with airlines to expand into destinations like New Zealand, the Pacific, South-East Asia and even the Middle East,” he said.
Bigger is not always better for regional airport passengers. Pictured: Cairns Airport.Credit: Cairns Airport
Newcastle-Perth flights also allow regional flyers to sidestep Sydney on their way to Europe.
Cairns, with its proximity to Asia and the Great Barrier Reef, is functioning as a kind of super-regional airport, offering flights deep into Asia and the Pacific.
International passenger numbers at Cairns Airport are expected to reach 760,000 this financial year, the airport said, the highest number in almost 20 years. Cairns international destinations range from Singapore, to Hong Kong, Bali and cities in Japan, New Zealand, Fiji and Port Moresby, PNG.
Last year, Singapore Airlines started operating its wide-body A350, which replaced the 737, and increased seating on the Cairns-Singapore route by 50 per cent.
In April, Fiji Airlines began a three-times-a-week service from Cairns to Fiji, which provides “faster one-stop connections to North America” for people in northern Queensland who typically need to first travel to Brisbane or points further south before boarding flights across the Pacific.
In January, Hong Kong Airlines resumed its Gold Coast-Hong Kong flights, which had been paused three years before.
However, seat capacity for international destinations travelling through regional airports remains lower than pre-COVID levels which, for example, was at 25,907 seats in June 2019, on Cirium’s numbers.
The pre-COVID numbers reflect the surging inbound travel from China, especially involving visits to the Great Barrier Reef, which came to a shuddering halt as borders closed. Cirium counted Cairns, Gold Coast, Hobart, Newcastle, Avalon and Broome as regional airports.
A Jetstar A320neo.
Before the COVID lockdowns, Avalon Airport, 50 kilometres from Melbourne, had also been building capacity to Asia, with 14 weekly Air Asia flights to Kuala Lumpur.
The growing international travel demand comes even as domestic air travel remains soft.
In the latest government collected BITRE data, total passengers carried rose 1.4 per cent to 59.31 million in the year to April. International passenger traffic for the year to April 2025 was 42.5 million, up 10.5 per cent.
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.