Ahead of next year’s Easter holidays, Jetstar is launching a fourth weekly service between Sydney and Rarotonga.

Taking off from 27 March 2024, the extra flights will add 24,000 seats a year to the Cook Islands which is growing in popularity with Australian holidaymakers, Cook Islands Tourism said in a statement.

Jetstar currently flies three times a week between Sydney and the Cook Islands on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. When it launches, the fourth flight will operate every Wednesday.

Cook Islands Tourism chief executive Karla Eggelton said: “Since launching direct services from Sydney to the Cook Islands in June this year, Jetstar has already carried more than 8000 customers to Rarotonga.”

“With the additional weekly flight, Jetstar expects to carry more than 70,000 customers a year between the two destinations using the newest aircraft in its fleet, the Airbus A321neo LR.”

Prime Minister Mark Brown said: “This is a further step towards re-building our economy. Demand from Australia has been strong and in July we received the highest number of Australian visitors ever in a July. Our Government and Jetstar saw an opportunity to increase the number of weekly services, hence the extra flight from late March.’’

Jenn Armor, Jetstar’s executive manager, customer, said the popularity of the route had exceeded expectations.

“We’ve already carried more than 8,000 customers between Australia and the Cook Islands since we launched four months ago.”

The inaugural flight in June made history by becoming the first non-stop service between Australia and the Cook Islands to be operated by an Australian airline since Ansett in the early 1990s.