The Deputy Prime Minister spoke to both Qantas and Virgin over the Easter weekend about the possibility of the government subsidising a number of domestic flights to maintain air links between capital cities.
Virgin Australia will suspend all domestic services from 10 April, except one return flight between Sydney and Melbourne.
Virgin Australia will fly a multi-leg repatriation flight from Brisbane to Paris, via Auckland and Hong Kong, to help stranded passengers from different nations to return home.
These startling images from Flightradar24 show how the skies over Australia have now almost emptied as international and domestic airlines pause most of their services.
Virgin Australia ramped up its lobbying for a bailout by placing a full-page advert in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph warning of the dangers of a Qantas monopoly.
Qantas and Virgin will resume limited international flights to Australia from London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Auckland after agreeing to a repatriation deal with the government.