lame
22nd May 2004, 23:35
$70 taxi ride for a $65 flight.
The Sunday Age.
Budget airline Jetstar enters Australia's cut-throat domestic airline market on Tuesday to take on Virgin Blue. Mark Russell reports.
The road to Avalon for Jetstar passengers is, if you believe the hype and the airline's $15 million advertising campaign, paved with cheap flights.
Qantas's discount no-frills airline starts up on Tuesday from Tullamarine, with flights from Avalon airport, 55 kilometres west of Melbourne, taking off on June 1.
Avalon, an aircraft maintenance centre and former low-level military airport, has undergone a $4 million upgrade with a new terminal and 900-space car park built since February when it was named as part of Jetstar's home base in Victoria.
Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, whose family company Linfox has held a 99-year lease on the airport since 1997, secured the deal for Jetstar to use Avalon with Qantas chief Geoff Dixon over dinner at his Toorak mansion.
The Sunday Age toured the regional airport site last week when up to 60 workers were busy putting the final touches to the project.
Footpaths were being concreted, lawn laid, the arrivals hall painted, baggage X-ray machines set up, and car-hire company desks installed. Avalon general manager Tim Anderson said he expected the airport to be operational by Tuesday, a week before services begin.
The airport, which will handle 1250 passengers daily, will feature one arrivals gate and one departures gate, three check-in counters, lounge and cafe. Shops will follow.
Jetstar, which hopes to capture about 10 per cent of the domestic market within a year, will begin operations with 14 125-seat Boeing 717 jets and gradually replace them with a fleet of larger 177-seat Airbus A320s.
The first of 23 Airbuses is expected to be in use by July, with the last due by mid-2006.
There will be 70 Jetstar flights in and out of Avalon each week to Sydney and Brisbane compared with 246 flights a week in and out of Tullamarine to Hobart, Launceston, Newcastle, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and Hamilton Island.
The airline hopes to expand progressively from November with flights to Perth, Alice Springs, Uluru, Darwin, Broome, Townsville, and Adelaide planned.
Regular bus services from the city to Avalon via Werribee will be run by Sita Coaches, a Footscray-based company that has won the public tender for the State Government contract.
It will cost $12 for the one-way fare, a dollar cheaper than the Skybus fare from Tullamarine to Spencer Street bus station in the city. A return trip will cost $20. A taxi to Avalon from the city will cost about $70. Taxis taking passengers from Melbourne to Avalon will not be allowed to pick up a new fare as the airport lies outside the designated metropolitan taxi zone. Geelong taxis will be available to take people to the city.
Victorian Taxi Association spokesman Neil Sach said the situation would be closely monitored.
"We suspect most people going to Avalon will go by bus. We don't see taxis as being the main feeder to Avalon at all," Mr Sach said.
If Jetstar passengers want to catch a train to the airport, V/Line runs 22 services a day from Melbourne to Geelong.
It costs $7.30 for the 47-minute trip from Spencer Street Station to Lara, the closest station to Avalon. Mr Anderson said that Jetstar hoped to encourage passengers to use cars or the bus service to the airport so there were no plans to run a shuttle bus service for the five-minute trip from Lara to Avalon.
A spokeswoman for Transport Minister Peter Batchelor said the situation would be reviewed if there was sufficient public demand for the service. Long-term parking at Avalon will cost $10 for the first day and $5 a day after that.
Casual parking will cost $2 for the first 30 minutes, $2 for the next half hour and $6 for two hours.
At Tullamarine, where a taxi costs about $35 to $40 for the 30-minute trip to the city, long-term parking costs $17 for the first day or $35 for four days. Casual parking costs $2 for up to 20 minutes, $5 for 20 to 40 minutes, and $7 an hour.
Cost reduction measures mean Jetstar passengers will be unable to board their flight if they arrive after check-in has closed 30 minutes before departure. They will lose their seats and no refunds or free transfers will be given.
There will be no allocated seating, with boarding priority based on check-in time. The earlier the check-in, the higher the priority when passengers are boarded in blocks of 40.
Passengers will be charged for food and drink, have to carry their own baggage between connecting flights, unaccompanied children will not be supervised, and it will cost $5 for each kilogram of baggage above the 20-kilogram limit.
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said passengers would benefit in the long run, with fares expected to drop to as low as the $29 seats offered when the airline was launched in February.
"The ultimate challenge is the delivery of a lot of lower price fares on an ongoing basis," he said.
Virgin Blue spokesman David Huttner said his airline was not worried about Jetstar.
"This is not going to change the world," Mr Huttner said.
"We've made it very clear we'll match whatever prices they put out there; period, end of discussion. We're not going to give up our position in the market just because Qantas has repainted a few of its planes. We plan on giving them everything we've got."
The Sunday Age.
Budget airline Jetstar enters Australia's cut-throat domestic airline market on Tuesday to take on Virgin Blue. Mark Russell reports.
The road to Avalon for Jetstar passengers is, if you believe the hype and the airline's $15 million advertising campaign, paved with cheap flights.
Qantas's discount no-frills airline starts up on Tuesday from Tullamarine, with flights from Avalon airport, 55 kilometres west of Melbourne, taking off on June 1.
Avalon, an aircraft maintenance centre and former low-level military airport, has undergone a $4 million upgrade with a new terminal and 900-space car park built since February when it was named as part of Jetstar's home base in Victoria.
Trucking magnate Lindsay Fox, whose family company Linfox has held a 99-year lease on the airport since 1997, secured the deal for Jetstar to use Avalon with Qantas chief Geoff Dixon over dinner at his Toorak mansion.
The Sunday Age toured the regional airport site last week when up to 60 workers were busy putting the final touches to the project.
Footpaths were being concreted, lawn laid, the arrivals hall painted, baggage X-ray machines set up, and car-hire company desks installed. Avalon general manager Tim Anderson said he expected the airport to be operational by Tuesday, a week before services begin.
The airport, which will handle 1250 passengers daily, will feature one arrivals gate and one departures gate, three check-in counters, lounge and cafe. Shops will follow.
Jetstar, which hopes to capture about 10 per cent of the domestic market within a year, will begin operations with 14 125-seat Boeing 717 jets and gradually replace them with a fleet of larger 177-seat Airbus A320s.
The first of 23 Airbuses is expected to be in use by July, with the last due by mid-2006.
There will be 70 Jetstar flights in and out of Avalon each week to Sydney and Brisbane compared with 246 flights a week in and out of Tullamarine to Hobart, Launceston, Newcastle, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and Hamilton Island.
The airline hopes to expand progressively from November with flights to Perth, Alice Springs, Uluru, Darwin, Broome, Townsville, and Adelaide planned.
Regular bus services from the city to Avalon via Werribee will be run by Sita Coaches, a Footscray-based company that has won the public tender for the State Government contract.
It will cost $12 for the one-way fare, a dollar cheaper than the Skybus fare from Tullamarine to Spencer Street bus station in the city. A return trip will cost $20. A taxi to Avalon from the city will cost about $70. Taxis taking passengers from Melbourne to Avalon will not be allowed to pick up a new fare as the airport lies outside the designated metropolitan taxi zone. Geelong taxis will be available to take people to the city.
Victorian Taxi Association spokesman Neil Sach said the situation would be closely monitored.
"We suspect most people going to Avalon will go by bus. We don't see taxis as being the main feeder to Avalon at all," Mr Sach said.
If Jetstar passengers want to catch a train to the airport, V/Line runs 22 services a day from Melbourne to Geelong.
It costs $7.30 for the 47-minute trip from Spencer Street Station to Lara, the closest station to Avalon. Mr Anderson said that Jetstar hoped to encourage passengers to use cars or the bus service to the airport so there were no plans to run a shuttle bus service for the five-minute trip from Lara to Avalon.
A spokeswoman for Transport Minister Peter Batchelor said the situation would be reviewed if there was sufficient public demand for the service. Long-term parking at Avalon will cost $10 for the first day and $5 a day after that.
Casual parking will cost $2 for the first 30 minutes, $2 for the next half hour and $6 for two hours.
At Tullamarine, where a taxi costs about $35 to $40 for the 30-minute trip to the city, long-term parking costs $17 for the first day or $35 for four days. Casual parking costs $2 for up to 20 minutes, $5 for 20 to 40 minutes, and $7 an hour.
Cost reduction measures mean Jetstar passengers will be unable to board their flight if they arrive after check-in has closed 30 minutes before departure. They will lose their seats and no refunds or free transfers will be given.
There will be no allocated seating, with boarding priority based on check-in time. The earlier the check-in, the higher the priority when passengers are boarded in blocks of 40.
Passengers will be charged for food and drink, have to carry their own baggage between connecting flights, unaccompanied children will not be supervised, and it will cost $5 for each kilogram of baggage above the 20-kilogram limit.
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said passengers would benefit in the long run, with fares expected to drop to as low as the $29 seats offered when the airline was launched in February.
"The ultimate challenge is the delivery of a lot of lower price fares on an ongoing basis," he said.
Virgin Blue spokesman David Huttner said his airline was not worried about Jetstar.
"This is not going to change the world," Mr Huttner said.
"We've made it very clear we'll match whatever prices they put out there; period, end of discussion. We're not going to give up our position in the market just because Qantas has repainted a few of its planes. We plan on giving them everything we've got."