Jetstar happy with NZ start but Ozjet struggling
Jetstar plans to retain a single hub in New Zealand for now and may expand its trans-Tasman services by adding new flights to more Australian destinations, its chief executive said.
Chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline’s performance in the highly competitive market would be assessed after six months.
Mr Joyce said expanding services to other Australian cities already serviced by Jetstar’s domestic flights would be a cheaper option than other New Zealand cities because of establishment costs.
“Once you have that, the incrementals are a lot less in terms of costs,” he said.
“So there’s an incentive for us to join up the dots.”
He also curiously commented on the launch of Business class start up OzJet. While admitting that Paul Stoddart was obviously a good businessman who would have done his homework, he believed that the airline would struggle against Qantas.
“I think OzJet has got its work cut out … because Qantas is very competitive there,” he said.
He said Qantas offered an excellent product for the business community through its established network, frequency of flights, lounge access and frequent flier points.
“It just means it’s going to be very competitive at the business end as well for a while,” he said.
Just how competitive OzJet is already starting to find out. The airline’s founder, Paul Stoddart, conceded it had cancelled two of its eight return flights yesterday.
“There is no point flying flights during the day with a couple of people on them,” Mr Stoddart told the SMH. “The two flights were in the early and mid-afternoon, a time normally quiet for business traffic.
“We just rang the people up and said, ‘Would you like to go on an early or late flight?’ There was no hassle in it.”
Maybe not, but the airline has already been forced to alter its pricing strategy cutting the price of its standard one-way fares from $305 to $249 from next week until January 31.
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