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Jetstar readies for two-horse race

Jetstar is spreading its wings in this country – offering domestic travellers an extra 717,000 low-fare seats a year – as the local aviation market becomes a two-horse race.The low fares airline, a subsidiary of Qantas, is adding 116 weekly re

Georgina Bond
Thu, 16 Sep 2010

Jetstar is spreading its wings in this country – offering domestic travellers an extra 717,000 low-fare seats a year – as the local aviation market becomes a two-horse race.

The low fares airline, a subsidiary of Qantas, is adding 116 weekly return flights between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown from February.

Auckland-Christchurch return flights will increase from five to seven-times daily and Auckland-Wellington from three to five-times daily.

Christchurch-Wellington return flights will double to twice daily and four weekly Auckland-Queenstown return flights will be added to the current daily service.

Extra capacity is made possible by the addition of two more 117-seat Airbus A320 aircraft to its New Zealand fleet early next year, taking total New Zealand-based aircraft to eight.

Jetstar’s new chief executive for Australia and New Zealand David Hall said the airline was closing in on a 20% share of the domestic New Zealand market and the new services enforced its presence here following Pacific Blue’s withdrawal.

The expanded service would see the airline take on about 100 more staff over the next year, taking the total to 300.

One million passengers had now travelled domestically with Jetstar in the year since it had been in the market, he said.

More frequency on key domestic routes would help Jetstar challenge Air New Zealand’s dominance and ensure fares stayed competitive when Pacific Blue stops flying here next month.

“Our newly expanded domestic and recently announced transtasman growth will offer timely support for New Zealand tourism and regional economies in particularly, following the recent earthquake in Christchurch and in advance of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Jetstar’s text message check in system was an example of a move towards automated services that would increase speed and reduce hassle at airport, and more appeal to corporate travellers, particularly small-to-medium-sized businesses.

Jetstar took over from its parent airline Qantas on domestic New Zealand routes just over a year ago.
In recent months it has launched Auckland-Cairns, Melbourne-Queenstown and Gold Coast-Queenstown flights.
The airline has also flagged plans for direct flights to North America and Asia from New Zealand, as well as additional transtasman routes.

Low-fares rival Pacific Blue will fly its last domestic flight in New Zealand on October 18 after three years in the market, and redeploy aircraft to transtasman and domestic Australia.

The Virgin Blue subsidiary was credited with lowering domestic fares by about 20% in New Zealand since its entry in 2007 but the airline said it had lost “tens of millions of dollars” on its routes between Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and more recently Dunedin and Queenstown.
 

Georgina Bond
Thu, 16 Sep 2010
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Jetstar readies for two-horse race
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