Darwin grows foreign airline links, despite Jetstar's base closure. Even a hub role may evolve now

Darwin is seeing a surge in capacity from foreign carriers as demand for international services expand to and from northern Australia, driven by growth in the energy and mining sectors. The increases offset an upcoming reduction in international capacity by Jetstar Airways as the Qantas low-cost subsidiary closes its Darwin base.

Seat capacity between Darwin and Southeast Asia has expanded by about 40% over the last year as three foreign carriers - Indonesia AirAsia, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Philippines Airlines (PAL) - have entered. Garuda Indonesia is also now looking at resuming services to Darwin in 2014.

Darwin was previously only served by one foreign carrier, Singapore Airlines (SIA) regional subsidiary SilkAir, which launched services in 2012. Jetstar also operates three international routes from Darwin - Bali, Manila/Tokyo and Singapore - but is dropping Manila/Tokyo and slightly reducing capacity on Bali and Singapore.