Jetstar to expand Gold Coast-Tokyo service

Australia’s low fare airline Jetstar will expand its Gold Coast–Tokyo (Narita) two-class service, which commences five times a week from Thursday, to a daily service from March 29 March. The two additional Gold Coast-Narita services are subject to regulatory approval.

Jetstar, the largest Qantas group operator on the Australia–Japan route, will be offering a future schedule of 21 weekly return flights that includes existing Osaka-Gold Coast-Sydney and future Cairns-Tokyo daily services.

Jetstar’s new daily frequency on the Gold Coast-Tokyo route with its fleet of A330-200s will offer five times weekly connections Gold Coast-Sydney with a wide bodied tag service.

By late April 2009, Jetstar’s international services from the Gold Coast will rise to 23 weekly return frequencies, including future daily Gold Coast–Auckland A320 services (commencing from April 28, 2009) existing twice weekly Gold Coast-Christchurch A320 services and its commitment to daily direct flights to both Osaka and Tokyo.

Jetstar Chief Executive Officer Bruce Buchanan said the Gold Coast–Narita market, a new Qantas group international route, had shown a positive sales performance ahead of its operational launch.

“Jetstar’s commitment to building a sustainable and now sizeable international and domestic flying hub from the Gold Coast is further vindicated by this announced next phase of expansion on the Gold Coast-Japan route,” Buchanan said.

“By moving to a daily direct offering between Tokyo and the Gold Coast, we believe we will be well placed to capture any upturn in Japanese interest in Australia, supported through existing marketing of the destination in Japan, a stronger exchange rate between the Japanese yen and Australian dollar, and improved flight access.

“Gold Coast International Airport is fast emerging through Jetstar as a primary gateway for Japanese visitation to Australia, via our future offering of daily direct international links to Tokyo and Osaka, representing over 4,200 weekly seats across these markets.

“Our existing Gold Coast–Japan services and performance on these markets is meeting expectation and the positive trends we are starting to see are also being reflected in Japan. Our total passenger volumes on our Japanese services have risen, up by around 9% over the April to September 2008 period compared to the prior year.

“The Kansai Immigration Office has also recently indicated quite strong rises in Japanese visitation to both Australia and New Zealand over the recent peak travel period (mid-July – mid-August) compared to last year, and we think the Gold Coast tourism industry can capture this improvement in Japanese consumer sentiment, supported by our expanding direct services.”

Buchanan said Jetstar had recently announced a future three times weekly Cairns-Gold Coast A320 service to commence from Feb 3, 2009, that also provided through Jetstar’s Gold Coast flying hub, new opportunities for Japanese group and independent travelers when accessing and moving within Queensland and the Australian mainland.

© Japan Today