The direction, strength and diversity of links between Australia and the Asia-Pacific region changed rapidly in recent decades as seen in new trade, migration and tourism connections. Over that time too, the global aviation industry underwent change and new routes, different aircraft and new regulatory arrangements emerged as the Asia Pacific region developed into the world’s largest aviation market. This paper explores the connections between these two sets of circumstances at two levels. First it establishes the national and regional scale focus of the changes, and then second explores the shift from hub-to-hub toward direct city–to- city services. Those expressions of the re-structuring in the region’s aviation industry have been felt unevenly across the region’s airlines, and its cities. The paper will highlight the unevenness among airlines as seen in the problems recently experienced by Qantas.