Christmas comes early as Flying Kangaroo touches down on the Sunshine Coast

Qantas’s inaugural Sydney to Sunshine Coast flight touched down at Sunshine Coast Airport on Monday, the first of the airline’s new services flying between the city and the Coast six times per week.

QantasLink Chief Executive Officer John Gissing and Mayor Mark Jamieson were on the first flight which arrived on a perfect Coast evening.

Mr Gissing said the services would provide more premium options for business and leisure travellers to and from the region.

“These flights meet the growing demand for a premium leisure service here in the Sunshine Coast and we know our customers will enjoy flying on our QantasLink Boeing 717 jet aircraft, with business class and in-flight entertainment,” Mr Gissing said.

“Offering both Qantas and Jetstar on the route means we can appeal to leisure travellers with Jetstar, while Qantas caters for more premium leisure and business customers. Ultimately, it’s about giving people more choice.

“Over the holiday period our schedule is aimed at leisure travellers, but from February we’ll start more business focused timings with an early morning departure from Sunshine Coast Airport and late afternoon departure from Sydney, meaning our customers based in the Sunshine Coast can do a day trip in Sydney.”

Mayor Jamieson said with more than 68,000 seats available, the new Qantas service further supports local business growth and would complement the major developments underway on the Sunshine Coast.

“Establishing the new service has been a priority for Council and I commend Qantas on their commitment to, and confidence in, the region,” Mayor Jamieson said.

“The schedule allows business travellers to avoid highway traffic and the cost of driving between the Coast and Brisbane as they can now fly direct to Sydney to do a full day’s work and return again that evening.

“With Qantas cabin crew being accommodated locally and engineering, ground handling, catering and fueling sourced from local ground handling companies, we welcome the boost this will bring to the Sunshine Coast economy.”

QantasLink’s two-class B717s are fitted with Q Streaming and with the airline’s new Qantas Entertainment App, customers have the option to stream more than 500 hours of movies and TV shows, and more than 400 hours of music and radio content to their own personal device. Customers also have the option of Qantas supplied iPads available in every seat.

These new flights expand the Qantas Group offering on the Sunshine Coast, complementing Jetstar’s 49 flights per week, which increase to 52 weekly flights over the Christmas and New Year period, and minimum three-daily services from both Melbourne and Sydney.