Ho, Ho, Ho Christmas comes early!
Pacific Blue has ramped up flights to both New Zealand and the Pacific Islands following enormous demand for extra services around the busy Christmas and New Year period.
Travellers are getting in even earlier this year, planning and booking their festive season flights. Pacific Blue currently operates 110 weekly flights serving Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island countries.
After some schedule “tweaking”, Pacific Blue will operate an additional 124 flights spread over the four and half week festive season, from 21 December 2007 to 20 January 2008, as follows:
Sydney to Samoa 17 additional flights*
Sydney to Fiji 8 additional flights*
Sydney to Christchurch 9 additional flights*
Brisbane to Auckland 11 additional flights*
Brisbane to Christchurch 10 additional flights*
Brisbane to Vanuatu 8 additional flights*
Brisbane to Wellington 8 additional flights*
Auckland to Samoa 27 additional flights*
Auckland to Cook Islands 8 additional flights*
Auckland to Gold Coast 18 additional flights*
The extra flights, which cater for the holiday and visiting friends and family markets, are on sale now at www.flypacificblue.com and are already being snapped up by eager travellers.
Virgin Blue’s Chief Commercial Officer, Stefan Pichler, said, “It’s no wild secret that the Christmas/New Year period is one of the highest demand periods throughout the year. We did some advance planning specifically to cater for the tens of thousands of Guests wanting to either spend Christmas with family and friends or escape somewhere exotic for the holiday season.”
Since the launch of Virgin Blue’s Pacific Blue subsidiary in 2004, travellers have embraced the airline’s “Travel Happy” strategy, affordable fares and high service standards.
Pacific Blue flights have assisted growth in visitor numbers to the Pacific Islands with Brisbane to Vanuatu passenger market increasing by 134%^, Sydney to Samoa by 111%^ and Brisbane to Fiji by 76%^.
The mature Trans-Tasman market has also seen double digit growth in passengers since the arrival of Pacific Blue flights.
* Flights are subject to the standard regulatory approvals.
^ Figures provided by the Bureau of Transport Economics, Australia (www.btre.gov.au).
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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