Jetstar will cease flying from Sydney to Honolulu in October 2025, ending 19 years of service on the route. This follows Jetstar’s withdrawal from the Melbourne-Honolulu route last week, and marks the end of the budget carrier’s service to Hawaii – its only destination in the USA.
Hawaii was one of Jetstar’s first long-haul destinations (after Thailand), with Jetstar initially launching flights from Sydney to Honolulu in 2006. Non-stop flights from Melbourne to Honolulu followed in 2013. Jetstar also briefly flew from Brisbane to Honolulu from 2014 until 2016.
Flying Jetstar to Hawaii is currently one of the cheapest ways to get from Australia to the USA, especially if you want to book a one-way ticket. So, it’s a shame to see this service going.
The final JQ3 service from Sydney to Honolulu will take off on 24 October 2025, with the last return flight JQ4 also departing on that date.
Rebooking and refund options for affected Jetstar passengers
Jetstar says it will rebook passengers on cancelled flights onto a Qantas flight on the same day. Qantas’ flights from Sydney to Honolulu run just a few hours later and on the same days that Jetstar had scheduled flights to operate beyond October 2025.
Passengers holding a Jetstar Business Class ticket on a cancelled flight will be rebooked into Qantas Premium Economy and given access to the Qantas Business Lounge. Qantas Premium Economy is roughly an equivalent product to Jetstar Business Class, so this seems like a fair enough trade.
Jetstar has contacted affected passengers directly. For passengers who don’t want to be rebooked onto Qantas, Jetstar is also offering either a refund or a free change to another Jetstar flight departing before 25 October 2025.
Unlike when Jetstar withdrew from the Melbourne-Honolulu route, Qantas is not adding extra Sydney-Honolulu flights to backfill capacity.
Why is Jetstar ending flights to Hawaii?
The Sydney-Honolulu route was unique because it was one of the only long-haul routes where Qantas and Jetstar both operated side by side… and made healthy profits doing so.
Qantas’ dual-brand strategy worked well in this market because Hawaii has traditionally attracted both price-conscious travellers (including families) and premium leisure travellers.
But Hawaii has become a significantly more expensive holiday destination in recent years, and demand to the USA is reportedly down in general. The weak Australian Dollar (against the US Dollar) also makes Hawaii less appealing to the kinds of travellers that Jetstar targets.
As one AFF member commented:
Makes sense. Hawaii’s accommodation is so expensive these days. It really negates the benefits of “cheap” airfares going to HNL.
kamchatsky on the AFF forum
This trend is also part of the reason why Qantas switched the aircraft it now flies from Sydney to Honolulu from an Airbus A330-300 to a Boeing 787-9. The latter has more seats in premium cabins, but carries fewer passengers overall.
Jetstar redirecting its long-haul focus to Asia
A Jetstar spokesperson told Australian Frequent Flyer that the airline will redeploy its Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft onto other long-haul routes with increasingly strong demand.
“We’re always looking for ways to provide more low fares seats on our most in demand routes,” Jetstar’s spokesperson said.
“This network change will free up our Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft to be redeployed to some of our most popular long-haul routes in Asia with plans currently being finalised.”
Jetstar will soon start refurbishing its Boeing 787 fleet, more than doubling the number of Business Class seats and adding new crew rest facilities. This will optimise these aircraft for operations on longer routes, such as from Australia to Sri Lanka or India.
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