Air NZ now Australia's biggest international airline

Air New Zealand is now Australia’s biggest international carrier as a result of the opening of the trans-Tasman bubble and Qantas ceasing most of its international operations. New analysis of data released by the Department of Transport reveals the Kiwi flag carrier was responsible for 49% of all international passengers arriving or departing from Australia in May – compared with just 22.6% for Qantas. The next two highest-ranking carriers were Jetstar (6.7%) and Singapore (5.7%). In total, there were 214,246 passengers leaving or arriving in the country in May 2021. The situation is a result of both Qantas and Virgin ceasing all commercial international operations other than those crossing the Tasman. Last year, Qatar Airways was at one stage the biggest, after its share of international passengers carried leapt from just 3% to 44.5% in April 2020. All the figures are compiled by the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE), the official source of aviation statistics.<br/>