Two decades after the first silver-tailed plane took off from Newcastle Airport in its maiden flight to Melbourne, the airline that was christened in the Hunter retraced its flight to mark the milestone on Saturday.
Saturday, May 25, marked 20 years to the day since Jetstar's first flight took off from Newcastle, and the service enlisted many of that original crew and its pilots to recreate the inaugural flight that has carried around 400 million passengers in the interim.
Newcastle Airport boss Peter Cock, who has overseen the Hunter's key airport with the airline, said both businesses had worked closely to expand route options, improve services, and ensure that air travel remained convenient and affordable for all passengers.
Captain Jeff Bray operated Jetstar's inaugural flight and was on board again on Saturday morning, with thousands of flights logged over the past two decades.
"While every flight is important, today's service is particularly special for the team," he said.
"It's a moment to reunite with other long serving colleagues who I started out with on 25 May 2004 and some of the same customers who were on board two decades ago."
When the silver-and-orange planes launched in 2004, the airline sold 100,000 tickets in the first day of trading. Late last year, Central Coast family Jay and Abbie Marlin, with their children Ava, Lyla and Beau touched down in Newcastle as the airline's 12-millionth customers that year.
The milestone follows a rough couple of years for the flying industry, as bushfires preceded the pandemic and then a cost of living crisis made flights an unaffordable luxury for many travellers, but Mr Cock told the Newcastle Herald in December that there were signs of recovery.
"Every point that we have that shows us we're coming back to our old selves is a real shot in the arm; we're here to facilitate people in and out of the region, that's what people come here to do, so every milestone like this is really great," he said.
