Qantas actually did tuesday and wednesday direct Brisbane. Monday was Melbourne and thursday was Sydney direct.

Port Hedland still gets a Brisbane flight on tuesday from Qantas so there must be some demand.

Have you guys ever lived/worked in the pilbara? There’s a lot of contractors in the Newman/port headland and karratha area that would happily use a direct service.

Yes a lot of FIFO workers go via Perth because that’s what BHP and Rio do for their workers. Equally there are contractors that have free accommodation in the pilbara while they’re there, but have to sort out there own way home. There’s lots of them living in Asia.

The council's been throwing money around trying to get an international service for their over the top terminal they spent $30m on before pax numbers dropped by 50%. i believe the incentives also include covering the cost of the ground handling. So, fair to say the risk will be shared fairly evenly and won't be all on Jetgo. If they got a contract between KTA and BNE might help to cover the costs of running a half or 2/3 empty aeroplane up to SIN.

It's going to rely on locals to use it as I can't see many Singaporeans wanting to start their holiday in K-town:}

According to the Mayor they did a survey and hundreds of people want it. getting their bums on seats vs going via PER will be a different matter entirely.

Bump. Any progress?

I did hear that they are considering E190 rather than E175. Maybe ex VA?

Icarus, I think the E190 that's in Clark is headed to Jetgo. Makes sense to me, if you're going to have the expense of the E190, you may as well have the capacity and range of the E190.

VH-ZPH ex VA will be going to Jetgo

Well good news for them I guess. Local airframes available makes life easier. Does anyone know much about the owners?

YBBN to Karratha is not an ETOPS flight, nor is onwards to WSSS, with a track near WADD. In fact, they can go on more or less to the CAN/USA via UK, Iceland, Greenland etc without being ETOPS. ETOPS can be helpful though, but it is not necessary everywhere, and on occasions it is not even desirable.

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=YBBN-YPKA&DU=mi&E=60

Does this help?
Based on 60 minutes.

Add the 15 minute allowance for 75 mins and there appears to be a small area shown.

C'mon iccy you can do better than that. What about Isa and Longreach?

Yes, seems a bit odd.

There would be a number of FIFOs living in Bali, perhaps flying to and from there instead of Perth would be an option. Mining companies could offer 6/2 with a trip straight to WADD doing away with the need to overnight in Perth and buy a ticket on AirAsia.

What does that have to do with Brisbane - Karratha - Singapore?

Aren't there flights from Port Hedland to Bali now?

That it will launch will be a miracle. And that will only be because the City of Karratha (with the unfortunate acronym CoK) will be underwriting it. Be interesting to see who uses it.

How quickly we forget one's roots! :)

That's what the Transport Minister said...

I guess anyone in the Karratha catchment area who is sick of flying two hours down to Perth on an expensive domestic flight to then fly back past KTA to SE Asia. The other choice would be Darwin.

I think it may work. Silkair were scheduled to try it but pulled out. Probably too risky for them as they can deploy elsewhere on a sure thing.

But if the destination is Bali, the most popular destination in SE Asia, they're flying 2.5 hours past DPS to fly back.

That is a big call. I guess you meant "...in SE Asia for West Australians"?

Not much of a shock if people decide to fly two hours North to Thailand which is number five on the list but the second most popular in SE Asia.

https://auspost.com.au/travel-essent...ralians-travel

3401.0 - Overseas Arrivals and Departures, Australia, Dec 2016

where would the new e-jet be used when not flying BNE/SIN/BNE ? Maybe on BNE/ABX/BNE which seems to be one of Jetgo's best routes.