Welcome everyone.

Firstly, thank you to the Prime Minister for co-hosting this evening alongside us.

To the Ministers, Members of Parliament and all our guests here tonight, it's a genuine pleasure to be in Wellington.

New Zealand and Australia go back a long way.

And so does Qantas in New Zealand.

We've been flying here in our own right for 65 years, and the Tasman has become one of the most travelled routes in the world.

It's been a privilege to be part of that story.

I want to be honest about the environment we're operating in. Fuel costs are elevated.

The situation in the Middle East continues to affect routing and costs for airlines globally.

When you run an airline, uncertainty is never far away.

But what we've learned over more than a century of flying is that when conditions are difficult, you back the relationships that matter most.

New Zealand is one of those relationships. And we are backing it.

What the Qantas Group is committing to New Zealand right now is the biggest investment we have ever made in this market.

Across Qantas and Jetstar, more than 800,000 seats have been added between Australia and New Zealand over the last 12 months.

Jetstar is undergoing its largest ever expansion here, launching seven new domestic and trans-Tasman routes over the past two years.

This significant investment in our New Zealand operations has added hundreds of thousands of low fares every year.

Australia continues to be New Zealand’s largest international visitor market and affordability is a key driver of that growth, with nearly 400,000 Jetstar customers travelling on trans-Tasman flights for under $200 last year.

Domestically, Jetstar offered close to a 1 million domestic fares for under $100 in 2025 and our average domestic fares are consistently 40-50% lower than the competition.

And our brand new A220 aircraft has now taken to the skies for its first ever international route, from Wellington to Brisbane, increasing to three times a week just last month.

But the investment goes well beyond seats.

We recently opened our new Auckland lounge, a multi-million dollar investment and part of the hundreds of millions we are committing to our lounge network globally.

Auckland is becoming an increasingly important eastern hub for us. Our new Auckland to Perth service is part of that, giving Kiwis direct access to Western Australia and opening up connections across our broader international network.

And for those wanting to travel further, our Auckland to New York service continues to be one of our most popular international routes, connecting New Zealand directly to one of the world's great cities. It is increasing to daily next month.

We're investing in Auckland because we see its potential, and we want to be the airline that realises it.

We've also introduced Economy Plus on our Boeing 737 services across New Zealand routes, giving customers up to 40 per cent more legroom, priority boarding and overhead baggage access.

Taken together, these are not incremental changes.

They represent a meaningful shift in what flying with Qantas in this part of the world feels like.

In the last 18 months alone, more than 5.8 million Kiwi customers have flown with Qantas and Jetstar.

Those are families reconnecting across the Tasman, businesses growing, students travelling, and tourists arriving to experience everything these islands offer, from the vineyards of Marlborough to the mountains of Queenstown to the culture and coastline that make New Zealand unlike anywhere else on earth.

The dual brand approach we have is deliberate.

Qantas and Jetstar serve different parts of the market, and together we make sure that whether you're travelling for work or travelling on a budget, there's an option for you.

We also have 1,800 team members based in New Zealand, including the Jetconnect team, our cabin crew and pilot base here.

It’s one of the very few places in the world where we have a base outside of Australia.

They are critical to our network, and they consistently earn some of the highest customer satisfaction scores across our entire operation. I want to acknowledge them tonight too.

We passed one million Qantas Frequent Flyer members in New Zealand last year, the largest membership base we have outside Australia.

This country isn't just a market we fly into. It's a place we're genuinely part of.

Which brings me to the opportunity I want to leave this room with.

Tourism has driven real economic growth for New Zealand before, and the conditions are there for it to do so again.

The Qantas Group wants to be a genuine partner to the New Zealand Government in that.

More routes, more access, more affordability.

Working together to bring more visitors to these shores and to make it easier for New Zealanders to travel.

Sixty-five years is a long time. And my hope is that the next 65 look even stronger than the last.

Thank you all for being here tonight.

It is now my pleasure to introduce the Prime Minister.