Jetstar kicks off with heavy loads
A report in The Australian says that Jetstar’s international’s inaugural flights have achieved load factors above 90% and forward bookings are exceeding expectations.
[A Jetstar A320 pictured right copyright Mark H – Airliners.net]
With the low cost carrier and Qantas’ main answer to cheaper operating costs first flight winging its way from Melbourne to Bangkok yesterday, Jetstar CEO Alan Joyce said that the airline’s operations were looking solid and this included bookings other than the deeply discounted launch fares which were aimed at making sure the carrier’s first flights offered were full.
He added, “For the first few weeks, obviously the loads are light coming back into Australia because we are concentrating mainly on outbound travel, but the forward bookings are exceeding our expectations and we’re happy with our performance.”
“We have low levels of bookings from February onwards but our expectation is that we’ll be up over the 70 per cent mark.”
Mr Joyce also said he was happy with the initial response to its announcement last week that it would take on the former Australian Airlines route to Nagoya and Osaka in Japan next year, with the airline selling 3000 seats from Japan in two days after widespread coverage of the announcement generated 15,000 calls on the first day.
The move, which will save Qantas $40 million a year, will see Jetstar begin six direct weekly Cairns-Nagoya services, including Sydney-Cairns-Nagoya twice-weekly, from August 2 and four weekly Cairns-Osaka services from September 8.
He added, “We’re getting a lot of interest in the Japanese market, we’ve filled the press conferences up there and there’s been a lot of TV coverage.”
This service is in addition to a previously announced Sydney-Brisbane-Osaka service due to begin in March.
Mr Joyce said the response to Jetstar International had also been good in other markets, particularly Thailand and Bali, adding, “There’s a big interest in a low-fares airline operating into some of these markets and interest around the long-haul model”.
Jetstar is also now waiting to see whether it can extend its 120-minute extended-range twin-engine operational performance standards (ETOPS) for the A330s to 180 minutes, with ETOPS allowing airlines to fly routes that at some point are more than 60 minutes away from an alternative airport.
Two of Jetstar’s newly painted A330-200’s were at yesterday’s launch and the first flight was due to be met in Bangkok by Qantas Chairman Margaret Jackson and Thailand’s tourism minister. CEO Geoff Dixon was not at the launch though as he was back at the ranch dealing with fallout from the possible takeover bid by a consortium headed by Macquarie Bank and Texas Pacific.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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