Wirraway
21st Nov 2004, 13:29
Mon "The Australian"
Jetstar goes west
By Steve Creedy
22nov04
LOW-COST carrier Jetstar will today announce daily services from Adelaide to three destinations as it begins to expand westward.
Jetstar chief executive Alan Joyce will unveil daily services from the South Australian capital to Hobart, Victoria's Avalon Airport and the Gold Coast from February 1.
The announcement heralds a new phase that will see Jetstar establish a national network after spending its first six months consolidating its east coast operations.
"Adelaide is the first new port that we've opened since Avalon," Mr Joyce said.
"It seems like we've been doing a lot and growing a lot, but we started on day one with 13 ports and on June 1 we added Avalon, which was our 14th port. This will be our 15th.
"And then at some stage during the next year we're hoping to have Perth online and go into the Northern Territory in a couple of places."
The low-cost Qantas offshoot flies 17 aircraft. Another three 177-seat Airbus A320s will enter service by the end of January.
It expects to reach its fleet target of 23 planes by July when it will begin swapping out its 14 Boeing 717s, eight of which will transfer to Qantas regional carrier and sister company Qantaslink, for the bigger A320s. It plans to have an all-Airbus fleet by mid-to late-2006.
Mr Joyce said the timing of services to Perth would depend on whether Jetstar won a bid to continue to operate and maintain the Boeing 717s for Qantaslink.
It is competing for the contract against incumbent Qantaslink operator National Jet Systems.
He said winning the Qantaslink contract would mean Jetstar would have to move on establishing facilities in Western Australia and could accelerate the timing of its own services.
Jetstar was keen to win the contract, which would give the carrier additional economies of scale and help lower unit costs.
"They (NJS) are certainly a very efficient operation, they know the market over there and they have the experience of those ports," he said.
"We enter new ports all the time, we have the experience of the 717 aircraft, we have the pilots already trained, we have engineering capability already built up, and there's a lot of start-up costs in doing that."
Mr Joyce said the Qantaslink contract could also make it worthwhile for Jetstar to find work for the other six 717s.
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Jetstar goes west
By Steve Creedy
22nov04
LOW-COST carrier Jetstar will today announce daily services from Adelaide to three destinations as it begins to expand westward.
Jetstar chief executive Alan Joyce will unveil daily services from the South Australian capital to Hobart, Victoria's Avalon Airport and the Gold Coast from February 1.
The announcement heralds a new phase that will see Jetstar establish a national network after spending its first six months consolidating its east coast operations.
"Adelaide is the first new port that we've opened since Avalon," Mr Joyce said.
"It seems like we've been doing a lot and growing a lot, but we started on day one with 13 ports and on June 1 we added Avalon, which was our 14th port. This will be our 15th.
"And then at some stage during the next year we're hoping to have Perth online and go into the Northern Territory in a couple of places."
The low-cost Qantas offshoot flies 17 aircraft. Another three 177-seat Airbus A320s will enter service by the end of January.
It expects to reach its fleet target of 23 planes by July when it will begin swapping out its 14 Boeing 717s, eight of which will transfer to Qantas regional carrier and sister company Qantaslink, for the bigger A320s. It plans to have an all-Airbus fleet by mid-to late-2006.
Mr Joyce said the timing of services to Perth would depend on whether Jetstar won a bid to continue to operate and maintain the Boeing 717s for Qantaslink.
It is competing for the contract against incumbent Qantaslink operator National Jet Systems.
He said winning the Qantaslink contract would mean Jetstar would have to move on establishing facilities in Western Australia and could accelerate the timing of its own services.
Jetstar was keen to win the contract, which would give the carrier additional economies of scale and help lower unit costs.
"They (NJS) are certainly a very efficient operation, they know the market over there and they have the experience of those ports," he said.
"We enter new ports all the time, we have the experience of the 717 aircraft, we have the pilots already trained, we have engineering capability already built up, and there's a lot of start-up costs in doing that."
Mr Joyce said the Qantaslink contract could also make it worthwhile for Jetstar to find work for the other six 717s.
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