Jetstar to fire opening salvo
A report in The Herald Sun says that Jetstar will fire its opening salvo in the looming tickets war with Virgin Blue and Tiger Airways by adding extra planes to the Gold Coast route.
The Qantas offshoot will put an additional two A320 jetliners on the Coolangatta route, a move that will result in 3700 extra seats being available each week on Melbourne and Sydney flights to the nation’s largest tourist destination.
The strategy is part of the carrier’s much broader plan to fill Australia’s skies with extra capacity to retain a reputation as the nation’s low fares carrier.
The two 178-seat jetliners destined for the Gold Coast route will be the first of a fleet of nine new planes to be delivered to Jetstar by Airbus over the next 15 months.
They are due to enter service at the peak of the December holiday season, when the Singapore government-funded Tiger Airways launches.
The remaining seven planes, to be delivered during 2008, will be assigned to other key routes where Jetstar confronts new competition.
The routes on which they will fly remains a marketing secret.
Jetstar chief executive Alan Joyce told BusinessDaily yesterday that he was committed to a low-cost strategy to ward off other budget carriers.
“The first move is to focus on our low-fare leadership, that’s critical and that’s what we’re doing,” Mr Joyce said, adding that the airline would also promote Jetstar’s image as Australia’s own low fares airline whereas “Tiger Airways is a Singapore government entity.”
“Not many people know that the majority of the shares in Tiger Airways are owned directly or indirectly by the Singapore government,” Mr Joyce said.
Mr Joyce said the introduction of the extra nine A320s would create up to 400 new direct jobs with the airline.
Qantas shares closed 4c down yesterday to $5.69.
Report by The Mole and The Herald Sun
John Alwyn-Jones
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