Jetstar will soon fly from Australia to two new cities in regional New Zealand – Hamilton and Dunedin. It follows the announcement just a few months ago of new Jetstar flights from Cairns to Christchurch, as well as from Sunshine Coast to Auckland.

From June 2025, Jetstar will fly from both Sydney and the Gold Coast to Hamilton, a small city to the south of Auckland on New Zealand’s North Island. The budget carrier will also launch direct flights from Gold Coast to Dunedin, the second largest city on New Zealand’s South Island.

Jetstar’s new trans-Tasman flight schedules

Jetstar’s Airbus A320 aircraft will serve these routes with the following schedules…

Jetstar Sydney-Hamilton flights

Starting on 16 June 2025, Jetstar flights from Sydney to Hamilton will run on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at these times:

• JQ165 Sydney 06:15 – Hamilton 11:15
• JQ166 Hamilton 12:05 – Sydney 13:35

Jetstar Gold Coast-Hamilton flights

The Gold Coast-Hamilton route launches on 18 June 2025, with flights on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays on the following schedule:

• JQ163 Gold Coast 06:20 – Hamilton 11:30
• JQ164 Hamilton 12:30 – Gold Coast 14:20

Jetstar Gold Coast-Dunedin flights

Gold Coast-Dunedin flights will begin on 24 June 2025 and run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. This is the schedule:

• JQ189 Gold Coat 09:25 – Dunedin 14:45
• JQ190 Dunedin 15:45 – Gold Coast 17:25

Why did Jetstar choose these new routes?

These are fairly niche routes that have not been served for a long time. The last time Hamilton received regularly scheduled passenger flights to Australia was in 2008, when Air New Zealand’s former budget arm Freedom Air flew from Hamilton to Gold Coast, Brisbane and Sydney.

Virgin Australia previously flew from Brisbane to Dunedin, but that airport has been without any trans-Tasman service since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

So, why is Jetstar launching these new trans-Tasman routes to Hamilton and Dunedin – two relatively niche destinations?

Firstly, their airports are gateways to some of the most popular tourism regions in New Zealand. Jetstar CEO Stephanie Tully also cited the large Kiwi expat community on the Gold Coast as one of the reasons for launching these routes.

But those don’t seem to be the main driving factors for these routes. They are mainly designed to attract inbound tourism from New Zealand.

“These services are expected to deliver over 115,000 passengers annually to the Gold Coast, connecting the city to Dunedin for the first time and re-establishing the airport’s first ever Tasman route, to Hamilton,” Queensland Airports Limited CEO Amelia Evans said.

The Queensland government and Queensland Airports are financially supporting the flights, which they hope will increase the number of Kiwi tourists spending money in Queensland.

“The new services will make Gold Coast Airport Australia’s most connected to New Zealand, with more routes for visitors and students to arrive, with air freight heading back across the Tasman,” Queensland Tourism Minister Michael Healy said.

“Almost half a million kiwis crossed the ditch to visit Queensland in the year ending March 2024, setting a second consecutive visitor spending record with $821 million in overnight visitor expenditure.”

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
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