Skytrans to Operate Lord Howe Island Route from March 2026 - Take over from Qantaslink

[Catweazle]

Oh yep, that'd be right. Another increase in carrier charges.
When will my salary go up?

 

[gaz0303]

Does anyone know what AVMAX/Skytrans plan on doing with all the -300s? Currently at least 8 are still parked at Tamworth. Would be nice if Link leased these and swapped out their Saabs and Fairchild Metro.

 

[henrus]

Does anyone know what AVMAX/Skytrans plan on doing with all the -300s?

Most of the 300s are still registered to Qantas awaiting their sale. Back in April Avmax mentioned they had signed a letter of intent with Qantas to purchase the 16x Q300s but it appears this hasn't happened yet except for just a few which were accepted then went into storage. My guess is they haven't been able to find an operator keen to lease them.

There was talk of SmartLynx (Skytrans) leasing some 300s from Avmax to operate within Australia more charter and boost/replace the 100s opps where possible as some are now over 40 years old.

 

[markis10]

Most of the 300s are still registered to Qantas awaiting their sale. Back in April Avmax mentioned they had signed a letter of intent with Qantas to purchase the 16x Q300s but it appears this hasn't happened yet except for just a few which were accepted then went into storage. My guess is they haven't been able to find an operator keen to lease them.

The 300s are a bit hard to find a new home, Q400 diff story

 

[JB31]

What about the future of classic to lord howe?

 

[henrus]

What about the future of classic to lord howe?

See my post #40 above. From the document last week they are meant to be coming.

 

[markis10]

Last RPT flight for QF Dash8-300s is fittingly about to leave TMW for SYD, VH-SBV. The aircraft will then do a SYD-SYD farewell jolly, marking the end of operations.

 

[Mattg]

Looks like the start date for SmartLynx to officially take over the Lord Howe Island services has been brought forward to 1 December 2025.

I'm not seeing a single Classic Reward seat on the SYD-LDH route after this date.

 

[dylarr]

Looks like the start date for SmartLynx to officially take over the Lord Howe Island services has been brought forward to 1 December 2025.

I'm not seeing a single Classic Reward seat on the SYD-LDH route after this date.

Interesting - there have been a large amount of system changes happening in the background over the last couple of weeks.

• QN (SmartLynx) flights have indeed been loaded from 1st Dec onwards but with availability zeroed through to 26th Feb, which is when they were supposed to take over the route.
• The QF prime flights from 1st Dec through to 25th Feb, and the QF codeshare operating on QN initially loaded from 26th Feb onwards have been removed right thru to 1st May, hence no reward (or even revenue) availability on QF at the moment.
• NZ codeshare flights operating on QN have been loaded (but zeroed) for the period 1st Dec - 25th Feb, assume these will cover for the period where NZ was codesharing on QF thru to when they were supposed to hand over on 26th Feb.
• Over the last week, QF codeshare flights from 26th Feb onwards have been renumbered and updated itineraries sent out. The only difference is the QF codeshare is now sold on the QN prime flight number instead of a W2 (FlexFlight) number, meaning they no longer seem to be using FlexFlight as an intermediary for the GDS integration between QN-QF.

As a result of all of this, availability has been ALL over the shop over the last week or so. Hopefully they iron everything out soon.

 

[dylarr]

In addition to the above, MCT for flights from LDH will change from 1st Dec onwards.

LDH-SYD D-D connections now have a MCT of 90 mins, up from 40 mins (no changes to D-D connections on flights to LDH).
LDH-SYD D-I connections now have a MCT of 120 mins, up from 90 mins (no changes to I-D connections on flights to LDH).

https://www.qantas.com/agencyconnect/au/en/agency-news/November-2025/customer-impacted-by-lord-howe-island.html

This is due to the fact that QN LDH-SYD flights will now arrive at SYD T2. QN SYD-LDH flights are unaffected and will still depart from T3 as originally announced.

 

[Saab34]

Apparently they have a shortage of Sydney Captains, I see they have a job ad on seek also, so let’s hope they don’t run into schedule issues.

 

[KarenR]

Returned from Lord Howe Island last week - CR flights booked 12 months ago, heard from a LDH resident that from February there will be no more CR seats available at all, hopefully this is not right.

 

[planky]

Flew LDH-SYD over the weekend on SmartLynx with arrival at T3. Unfortunately our bags did not make it back due to aircraft weight restrictions - Qantas are still managing the lost baggage side of things, but are unable to tell me where the bags are or how long it will take them to get back. Seems this is not uncommon, does anyone know how long it usually takes them to catch up with the baggage that has been left over there?

(Sorry to hijack the thread, just hoping for insights from travellers familiar with this route!)

 

[KarenR]

Flew LDH-SYD over the weekend on SmartLynx with arrival at T3. Unfortunately our bags did not make it back due to aircraft weight restrictions - Qantas are still managing the lost baggage side of things, but are unable to tell me where the bags are or how long it will take them to get back. Seems this is not uncommon, does anyone know how long it usually takes them to catch up with the baggage that has been left over there?

(Sorry to hijack the thread, just hoping for insights from travellers familiar with this route!Mine arrived back in Bendigo

Flew LDH-SYD over the weekend on SmartLynx with arrival at T3. Unfortunately our bags did not make it back due to aircraft weight restrictions - Qantas are still managing the lost baggage side of things, but are unable to tell me where the bags are or how long it will take them to get back. Seems this is not uncommon, does anyone know how long it usually takes them to catch up with the baggage that has been left over there?

(Sorry to hijack the thread, just hoping for insights from travellers familiar with this route!)

On one of our trips my bag didn't make it back. I'm in Bendigo and received a call from the airport the day after we arrived home saying they had it. They had put it on the next available Syd-Bxg flight.