Perth’s newest domestic service has taken to the skies with QantasLink’s inaugural flight to Newcastle earlier this week.

As the only airline to offer a direct flight between the two cities, QantasLink’s newest service will provide over 45,000 seats annually and a new way for customers to travel between Australia’s east and west coasts.

Operating on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays each week on QantasLink’s A319 aircraft, the new service will boost connectivity for travellers across the country including FIFO workers and mining customers who’ll be able to connect on to Qantas’ intra-WA network once in Perth.

It will also offer more options for east coast residents for their European getaways, with one-stop connections via Qantas’ growing western hub in Perth to international destinations including London, Paris and Rome.

The Newcastle service launch comes as QantasLink prepares to further grow its network from Perth this year with the restart of direct services to Hobart later this month and to Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands in November.