Jetstar passengers set to ‘walk’ to international flights in Brisbane in cost-saving move

An ‘incredible deal’ with Brisbane Airport will see Qantas’ budget carrier Jetstar do away with aerobridges and walk passengers to international flights.

An incredible deal with Brisbane Airport has convinced Jetstar to add a range of new routes and increased frequencies, at the Gold Coast Airport’s expense. Picture: Paul Jeffers/NCA NewsWire

Qantas’ budget carrier Jetstar has signed a landmark deal with Brisbane International Airport that will see passengers walked to aircraft on the tarmac rather than use aerobridges, as a cost-saving measure.

The change will help Jetstar maintain its low cost base, and offer half a million more seats out of Brisbane to destinations including Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Auckland and Bali.

Currently, Jetstar passengers walk off some domestic flights in Brisbane, but the move to do away with aerobridges for international travellers is new.

Speaking at Brisbane Airport on Monday, Jetstar chief executive Steph Tully said it was an “incredible deal” offered by the gateway that would also have an operational benefit.

“For an airport to recognise that as a low fares leader we can have differentiated service, we can have things like walk out gates and that enables us to keep our cost base strong which means we can provide lower fares, that's very progressive for an airport and we appreciate that space,” Ms Tully said.

Walk out gates were also used by Jetstar for some international flights in Melbourne, but only “very few” said an airport spokesman.

Flights to Tokyo (Narita) were set to start on October 31, followed by services to Seoul and Osaka from early February, to be operated by Jetstar’s Boeing 787-8s.

Jetstar also planned to increase the frequency of flights to Bali and Auckland, going from seven to ten a week to Denpasar, and from four flights a week to daily to Auckland.

In order to facilitate the Brisbane-Tokyo flights, Jetstar planned to end its Gold Coast-Tokyo services, which have operated since December 2008.

Gold Coast Airport chief commercial officer Adam Rowe described Jetstar’s decision as “very disappointing” given the strong passenger loads on the flights.

Since August 2022, close to 80,000 passengers had travelled the route, which was started by Jetstar in December 2008.

“We understand that Jetstar’s decision was based on operational performance, rather than the popularity of the connection, as this service has been a longstanding driver of our tourism industry and always well patronised by locals,” Mr Rowe said.

Ms Tully said the Gold Coast remained an important part of Jetstar’s network, but on this occasion it made operational sense to shift Tokyo flights to Brisbane.

Brisbane Airport CEO Gert-Jan de Graaff said the new flights being added by Jetstar represented “the biggest injection of low fare seats for Queenslanders” the gateway had ever seen.

“We look forward to welcoming more travellers from New Zealand, Japan and Seoul and enabling them to get out and explore our region and state,” said Mr de Graaff.

He also noted the increased use of “quieter and more fuel-efficient A321neos” given the ongoing issues over aircraft noise since the opening of a second runway.

“Brisbane Airport is committed to reducing the noise impact for our nearby communities and we know that next generation aircraft are an important part of this solution,” he said.

One-way sale fares starting from $179 for Brisbane-Auckland, climbing to $299 for Brisbane-Tokyo were being made available by Jetstar for 48-hours, to mark the route announcement.

Ms Tully said travellers could have confidence in Jetstar, which was getting on top of recent performance issues.

In the current month, the airline was landing well over 70 per cent of flights on time, and cancelling around 2 per cent of services, she said.

The figures were a marked improvement on April data, which saw Jetstar cancel more than 8 per cent of flights, or 20 a day. Of the flights that did take off, more than 40 per cent were delayed.

“We apologise profusely when we haven’t been up to scratch. Everyone on the Jetstar team has been focused on making this better, and we’ve seen big improvement,” Ms Tully said.

The increased reliability was attributed to tighter check-in and boarding times for passengers, more staff and fewer supply issues.

In May, Jetstar brought in new rules requiring passengers to check in no less than 40-minutes before their domestic flight and an hour before international services.

And boarding gates now close 20-minutes before takeoff, up from 15-minutes.