Australia-based Qantas Group will be shutting down Jetstar Asia, its low-budget intra-Asia airline, as announced on Thursday, June 11. This closure is part of a restructuring for its fleet renewal. The Group has made this decision due to financial challenges faced by the airline.
The group announced Jetstar Asia’s closure in a bid to free up $500 million in additional capital that will help it renew its fleet for other routes.
The Jetstar Asia airline, which was based in Singapore and was a low-cost subsidiary of the Qantas Group, has been riddled with challenges that have led to this closure. Citing “rising supplier costs, high airport fees, and intensified competition in the region,” the Australian group’s decision to shut down this Asia-based subsidiary was made with its majority shareholder, Westbrook Investments.
Flights from the airline will reduce progressively over the next seven weeks on a cut-down schedule. The last flight will fly on July 31 2025.
Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson said:
“Jetstar Asia has been a pioneering force in the Asian aviation market for more than 20 years, making air travel accessible to millions of customers across Southeast Asia.”
“We are incredibly proud of the Jetstar Asia team and the work they have done to deliver low fares, strong operational performance and exceptional customer service. This is a very tough day for them. Despite their best efforts, we have seen some of Jetstar Asia’s supplier costs increase by up to 200 per cent, which has materially changed its cost base.”
Customers who already have their flights booked with the airline that are being cancelled will be offered complete refunds. The Group will also try to re-accommodate these customers onto other flights, where possible, it said.
It will also offer employment services and redundancy benefits to employees who have been impacted by this closure.
The Jetstar Asia closure will impact only 16 intra-Asia routes that were operating from the Singapore base. Jetstar Airways and Jetstar Japan services will continue to function as usual.
Jetstar Airways’ flights from Australia into Asia across destinations such as Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and South Korea will function as normal.
The Group said:
“Singapore remains a critical hub for the Qantas Group as its third-largest international airport. Qantas also offers connections from Singapore through nearly 20 codeshare and interline partners to a variety of destinations across Asia.”
The closure is also meant to help the group renew its fleet. With this, it will deploy the 13 Jetstar Asia Airbus A320 aircraft to its other routes in New Zealand and Australia.
This will help the airline offer lower fares and “more local jobs,” it said.
The new fleet strategy coincides with the group receiving its first Airbus A321XLR, which is due to arrive later this month. Qantas’ first Project Sunrise A350-1000ULR will be received in 2026.
Ms. Hudson further said:
“We are currently undertaking the most ambitious fleet renewal program in our history, with almost 200 firm aircraft orders and hundreds of millions of dollars being invested into our existing fleet. We’re making disciplined decisions which recycle capital across our business and prioritise it to stronger performing segments as well as strategic growth initiatives like Project Sunrise.”
The impact of the airline’s closure is expected to be around $175 million in terms of redundancy and restructuring costs. This amount also includes losses from foreign currency exchanges in terms of “equity reserves” and “asset write-downs” that will occur as Qantas restructures its fleet.
The group said that the “direct pre-tax cash impact” is expected to total $160 million, predominantly in FY26. It will mitigate this impact through capital gains accumulated by improvement in Jetstar Airways utilising the redeployed aircraft, and from “consequential tax adjustments” in taxes that affect the group in the financial year 2026 and beyond.
Have you ever flown with Jetstar Asia before? What do you think about this closure? Let us know in the comments!
News Editor - Hemani is an experienced journalist with a love for travel and aviation. Currently interning as a news editor, she is a graduate of the Erasmus Mundus Journalism Master's programme.
