Jetstar Boosts Avalon Flights at Melbourne Airport’s Expense
By Andrew Curran.
Jetstar’s new flights between Avalon Airport (AVV) and Denpasar (DPS) will result in the airline trimming its flights between Melbourne Tullamarine (MEL) and Denpasar.
Jetstar recently announced it would begin Avalon’s only international flights on March 23, 2026. The low-cost carrier will use 232-passenger A321-200LR aircraft to fly between that airport and Denpasar four times weekly.
The flights are scheduled to depart Avalon at 17:55 every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The return flights are due to depart Denpasar at 22:20 on the same day.
Presently, Jetstar has two daily late afternoon departures from Melbourne Airport. They make up half of the four daily A321-200LR operated round-trips that the airline flies between Melbourne and Denpasar.
But between mid-March and the end of that month, Jetstar is progressively cancelling JQ35, the last Denpasar-bound departure of the day from Melbourne, on each day the Avalon flights are operating. JQ35 normally pushes back at 17:40.
The return service to Melbourne, JQ36, is also being cancelled on the same days of the week that the return flights to Avalon are running.
The outcome is a decrease in Jetstar’s weekly Melbourne – Denpasar round-trips from the current 28 to 23.
Government assistance paves the way for Jetstar's new Avalon flights
As it is entitled to do, Jetstar makes good use of government incentives that help underwrite new flights. The Victorian State Government is pitching in to help start the Avalon services. However, the government would be less inclined to help Jetstar start another service to Denpasar from Melbourne Tullamarine, given the carrier’s established presence there and the typical passenger profile (outbound Australians) on Jetstar’s Denpasar services.
Jetstar has flown from Avalon Airport, albeit operating a fairly threadbare schedule, for over two decades. It is about a 45 minute drive between Melbourne Tullamarine and Avalon Airports.
In 2015, after losing money at Avalon, Jetstar inked an AUD12 million (USD7.75 million) agreement with the Victorian Government to stay at the airport and even increase its flights.
That ten-year agreement is now ending and the time was ripe for Jetstar to negotiate a new deal. With an influx of capacity following the closure of Jetstar Asia and the transfer of its aircraft to the Australian operation, Jetstar has planes to deploy and a state government keen to keep scheduled flights operating to and from Melbourne’s de-facto second airport. The privately owned Avalon Airport also wanted to keep Jetstar on-site and get more foot traffic through its terminal. It was a winning set of circumstances.
In addition to the new Denpasar flights, the new agreement with the Victorian Government will see the airline resume Avalon – Adelaide (ADL) flights and increase frequencies on its existing services to Brisbane (BNE). None of the parties have put a dollar value on the new agreement.
Notwithstanding the service cuts, Melbourne – Denpasar will continue to be Jetstar’s busiest international route. The 23 weekly round-trips put 10,672 seats onto the route that is also serviced by Qantas, Virgin Australia, Batik Air, and Garuda Indonesia.
In contrast, Jetstar operates just 14 weekly round-trips between Denpasar and Sydney, even though Sydney has a slightly larger population than Melbourne. Next year, Western Sydney Airport (WSI) is due to open, which may see Jetstar adopt similar scheduling tactics when it starts flights from that airport.
Photos: Avalon Airport.