New overseas routes being added at a rate of more than one a month fuelling our wanderlust

Australia has never been so well served by international airlines with more than one new route a month added in 2024, Tourism Australia says.

Australian travellers have never had so many overseas destinations available to them in a single flight as airlines add new routes at a rate of more than one a month.

Since March, at least a dozen routes to and from Australia have been launched, with more to come in the months ahead.

They include Fiji Airways’ Cairns to Nadi hop from April, China Southern’s Adelaide-Guangzhou from December 12, and Cathay Pacific’s Cairns-Hong Kong services from December 17.

In addition, Delta Air Lines has just started Brisbane-Los Angeles, Turkish Airlines has launched Istanbul to Sydney via Kuala Lumpur, and American Airlines is flying non-stop from Dallas-Fort Worth to Brisbane.

Qantas has added Perth-Paris and Brisbane-Port Vila this year, JetstarAsia began its Singapore-Broome flights and Air New Zealand put Hobart on its destination map from Auckland.

Tourism Australia managing director Phillipa Harrison hopes to see even more new routes and airlines in 2025, to make it easier for international travellers to visit and help support the ongoing recovery of the tourism industry.

“Inbound international aviation capacity to Australia has returned to pre-pandemic levels but the mix of flights coming to Australia now is different to what it was in 2019,” Ms Harrison said.

“The new services and routes which have emerged over the past few years give travellers to Australia more options.”

Some destinations have had huge increases in airline capacity compared with pre-Covid, in particular India with 333 per cent more seats than in 2019; South Korea (up 135 per cent) and Indonesia and Japan (up 122 and 120 per cent respectively). Ms Harrison said there were more direct and indirect flights to Europe now, and new carriers were also part of the mix.

Busan, South Korea is one destination likely to see more Australians in 2025 thanks to strong airline capacity.

Among the airlines to add Australia to their network since the pandemic are Turkish, VietJet and China’s Juneyao.

Generous state-based incentive programs helped attract airlines down under, with the Queensland government splashing close to $200m, and the NSW government burning through more than half of a $60m aviation attraction fund.

Managing director of The Travel Corporation Australasia, Toni Ambler, said brands including Contiki, Trafalgar, Insight Vacations and Costsaver continued to see strong demand.

“I think people are still making the commitment to have that big iconic, memorable holiday every year,” Ms Ambler said.

“Having said that, one of the fastest growing brands in our portfolio is Costsaver which is real­ly a no-frills brand – it’s an unpackaged tour so all that’s included is your hotel, your transport and tour director and everything else is DIY – so that’s probably indicative of the cost of living crisis.”

Hottest destinations for travellers booking through those brands included South Korea and The Philippines for under 35s; Europe for older travellers and Canada across the board.

The prospect of more airline capacity into Europe next year as a result of the proposed Virgin-Qatar tie-up was significant because of the likely downward pressure that might place on airfares. “Of course we would love to see the more capacity. The more availability there is into Europe the better it is for the entire travel industry, and hopefully that’s where we’re heading in 2025,” Ms Ambler said.