On Tuesday 1 September 2026; a Jetstar A320 touched down at Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport (WSI), marking the completion of a trial flight eight weeks ahead of the first commercial passenger flight on Sunday 25 October.
Once operations begin, Jetstar will become the very-first airline to fly passengers from Western Sydney when flight JQ362 takes off for the Gold Coast at 11:00 on Sunday 25 October 2026.
The trial flight was run alongside the WSI team, with an end-to-end customer experience through the airport also being practiced in order to ensure a smooth, consistent operation from the airport’s initial launch day.
Jetstar Chief Pilot Tyrone Simes said:Australia hasn’t opened a major new airport like this in more than 50 years, so this morning was a genuinely exciting milestone for me and the team.
We’re doing this eight weeks out from the first flight deliberately. It gives us time to take what we learned today and build it into our procedures and crew briefings, ensuring everything is fully tested and refined well ahead of launch.
Today's flight was about getting to know the airport before we carry customers. Crew flew the arrival and departure exactly as they will in October, then worked through the ground side of the operation: the taxi route to the gate, lining up on the aerobridge, and the turnaround that gets the aircraft back out again.
By the time we carry our first customers from Western Sydney, every element of this operation will be familiar to us - and we can’t wait to share that first flight with them.
From opening day onwards, Jetstar will operate up to 14 flights a week between Western Sydney and Melbourne, daily flights to the Gold Coast – up from four a week – and three flights a week to Brisbane, with all flights set to be flown by Airbus A320 aircraft.
