Gold Coast Airport Grows Into a Jetstar Trans-Tasman Hub

By Andrew Curran.

Queensland’s Gold Coast Airport (OOL) has become one of Jetstar’s busiest Australian hubs for its trans-Tasman flights. Over the 2025/26 summer, the Qantas Group owned airline is offering more trans-Tasman flights to and from the Gold Coast than it offers from any other Australian airport.

Jetstar’s schedule data for a sample seven-day period from March 2, 2026, shows that the airline is operating 164 flights between Australia and New Zealand, providing 32,528 seats. Jetstar uses a mix of A320-200, A320-200N, and A321-200LRs on its trans-Tasman flights.

Jetstar’s busiest airport for trans-Tasman flights on the New Zealand side is Auckland (AKL), with 84 aircraft movements offering 17,556 seats over the same seven days. This is unsurprising, given Auckland is New Zealand’s biggest city.

But on the Australian side of the Tasman, Jetstar is scheduling more trans-Tasman flights in and out of the Gold Coast than any other Australian city. This includes the far busier Brisbane (BNE), Sydney (SYD), and Melbourne (MEL) Airports.

Jetstar also operates trans-Tasman flights out of Sunshine Coast (MCY) and Cairns (CNS) Airports.

Jetstar links Gold Coast Airport linked to six New Zealand cities

For the seven days from March 2, Jetstar has scheduled 46 trans-Tasman aircraft movements at Gold Coast Airport. Those aircraft are linking the Gold Coast to Auckland, Christchurch (CHC), Dunedin (DUD), Hamilton (HLZ), Queenstown (ZQN), and Wellington (WLG).

In terms of direct connections, no other Australian airport is connected to so many New Zealand airports by Jetstar or any other airline.

In terms of flight frequencies, Gold Coast Airport is Jetstar’s busiest Australian port for trans-Tasman flights this summer. Those 46 aircraft weekly movements will provide 8,608 seats on A320-200 and A320-200N aircraft.

Jetstar’s weekly trans-Tasman activity in and out of the Gold Coast for the seven-day period in March is illustrated below.

City Pair	Operating Aircraft	Weekly Round-trips	Weekly Seats
Gold Coast - Auckland	A320-200	7	2,604
Gold Coast - Christchurch	A320-200	3	1,116
Gold Coast - Dunedin	A320-200N	3	1,128
Gold Coast - Hamilton	A320-200N	3	1,128
Gold Coast - Queenstown	A320-200N	4	1,504
Gold Coast - Wellington	A320-200N	3	1,128
Totals:		23	8,608

Sydney Airport squeaks ahead on weekly trans-Tasman seat capacity

Measured by trans-Tasman weekly seat capacity, the Gold Coast is only just pipped by Sydney. This is despite the airline operating fewer trans-Tasman city pairs out of Sydney – just three (Sydney – Auckland, Sydney – Hamilton, and Sydney – Queenstown), and having slightly fewer weekly aircraft movements (44 versus the Gold Coast’s 46).

But because Jetstar uses the larger A321-200LR to operate daily Sydney – Auckland round-trips, its Sydney trans-Tasman operation offers slightly more weekly seats (8856) compared to the Gold Coast.

The table below illustrates Jetstar’s trans-Tasman flights to and from its Australian ports for the seven days from March 2.

City	Direct Jetstar connections to New Zealand	Operating Aircraft Type	Weekly Round-trips	Weekly Seat Capacity
Brisbane	1	A321LR	14	6,496
Cairns	1	A320-200	3	1,116
Gold Coast	6	A320/A320N	23	8,608
Melbourne	3	A320/A320N	17	6,336
Sunshine Coast	1	A320-200	3	1,116
Sydney	3	A320/A320N/A321LR	22	8,856
Totals:			82	32,528

Servicing a market other airlines ignore

New Zealand is Australia’s top international destination in terms of annual passenger numbers and the number of flights. The New Zealanders return the favour. Virgin Australia, Qantas, Air New Zealand compete with Jetstar on the country pair, as do fifth freedom operators Emirates and China Airlines.

In the 12 months to August 31, 2025, over 6.8 million passengers flew between the two countries

However, except for Air New Zealand, which flies to the Gold Coast from Auckland and Christchurch, the other airlines don’t incorporate Queensland’s holiday hotspot into their trans-Tasman networks. Mostly, they focus on trunk routes linking the biggest cities in both countries.

But the appeal of the Gold Coast is obvious – its beaches are good, it’s warm, sunny, and family friendly. Capitalising on this, Jetstar has built a strong network of trans-Tasman flights to and from the Gold Coast servicing that demand out of New Zealand for Queensland summer beach holidays

Figures sourced from current schedule data at www.jetstar.com

Photo:  Gold Coast Airport.