Summary
- Auckland, Singapore, and Bali have the most flights from Australia
- Batik Air begins its new Kuala Lumpur-Perth-Auckland service
- It is one of four fifth freedom carriers between Australia and Auckland
Australia has 1,794 international departing flights in the first week of September, based on the latest OAG data. However, the country's international market has 11% fewer flights than before the pandemic. Predictably, this is especially the case for Hong Kong (-52%) and China (-40%), while there are many more services to India (+163%) and Vietnam (+65%).
11 airports have international flights
In this September week, scheduled international flights leave from 11 Australian airports. Listed in order, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth obviously have the most. These four alone provide more than 90 in every 100 services.
Then there is the Gold Coast, Cairns, Adelaide, Darwin, Sunshine Coast, Hobart, and Canberra. The latter has one route: Fiji Airways' twice-weekly service from Nadi, which began in July 2023. Hobart, meanwhile, has a twice-weekly Air New Zealand operation to Auckland, where there are three flights from the Sunny Coast.
Australia's top 10 destinations
Australia has flights to more than 60 destinations globally in the examined period, with the most served summarized below. Auckland continues to have the greatest number of flights, although the gap with Singapore has narrowed.
Destination | Weekly flights* (first week of Sept) | From how many airports?** | Number of airlines*** |
|---|---|---|---|
Auckland | 228 | Nine | Seven |
Singapore | 205 | Seven | Six |
Bali | 202 | Eight | Seven |
Kuala Lumpur | 111 | Five | Three |
Queenstown | 69 | Four | Four |
Christchurch | 63 | Four | Four |
Dubai | 63 | Four | One |
Nadi | 62 | Five | Four |
Hong Kong | 53 | Four | Two |
Los Angeles | 46 | Three | Four |
* Non-stop and same-plane one-stop | ** This specific week only; may vary | *** This week; may vary |
Australia to Auckland has seven carriers
With 100 weekly departures, Air New Zealand is the leading operator across the Tasman Sea from Auckland, followed by Qantas (77) and Jetstar (26). While Aussie carriers have slightly more flights (103), Air New Zealand has nine routes, two more than Qantas/Jetstar.
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More interesting are the various fifth freedom flights, which provide 11% of the market's services. There is AirAsia X's daily Kuala Lumpur-Sydney-Auckland operation using the A330-300, along with Batik Air's brand-new six-weekly Kuala Lumpur-Perth-Auckland, which uses the Boeing 737 MAX 8.
Then there's China Airlines' five-weekly Taipei-Brisbane-Auckland with the A350-900 and LATAM's daily Santiago-Auckland-Sydney with the 787-9.
Welcome, Batik Air!
While 'only' a one-stop, same-plane service, Batik Air's full route covers a huge 5,886 miles (9,472 km) each way – by a narrowbody. For comparison purposes, it is nearly the same distance as London Heathrow-Los Angeles. It takes Batik Air more than 14 hours to complete the trip from Malaysia to New Zealand.
A continuation of Batik Air's existing Perth operation, the Perth-Auckland leg alone covers 3,323 miles (5,348 km), just slightly shorter than Heathrow-New York JFK. Not coincidentally, the very long route launched on August 24th, the day this article was written.
Will you be flying between Australia and any of the top 10 destinations soon? Let us know by commenting.
Sources of information: OAG, Google Flights, Flightradar24.com