Jetstar to Take Over Qantas' Cairns – Sydney Route

As part of a revision of its domestic air services Australian national carrier Qantas will transfer its Cairns – Sydney route to its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar from August 23, 2012. The budget venture already serves the route alongside the flag carrier and Virgin Australia and this week they will together offer 55 weekly flights providing just over 10,000 seats in each direction.

Jetstar started serving the domestic route in January 2005 and currently holds a 32.2% share of the weekly capacity on the route. In 2011 approximately 746,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two destinations, up 2.1 per cent on the previous year. During this period Jetstar increased its own share of the traffic by five percentage points, ending 2011 with a 33 per cent share of the O&D demand. According to latest estimated traffic data O&D demand was up a further 1.4 per cent during the first quarter of 2012 (versus 2011), with Jetstar increasing its own market share on last year.

The operational switch is part of a strengthening of the Jetstar operation at Cairns. The low-cost carrier is ramping up its activities from the city with a total net increase of more than 200,000 additional seats planned during the next financial year. The airline has already added four extra services between Cairns and Melbourne and as part of the capacity increase for northern Queensland will increase services between Melbourne and Townsville from four to seven rotations a week from September.

David Hall, Chief Executive Officer, Jetstar Australia & New Zealand said he is confident the flight increase would encourage growing numbers of people to visit one of the country’s most popular tourist destinations. “This is great news for holidaymakers and the tourism industry of Far North Queensland,” he said. “Cairns is already one of the most popular destinations on our network, so we expect to see an increase in holiday makers from the southern states coming in search of some sun.”

The latest network announcements are part of a major increase to Jetstar’s domestic capacity of more than 1.2 million seats during 2012/13. Existing routes receiving additional capacity in addition to Cairns include Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Ballina-Byron, Newcastle, the Gold Coast, Hobart and Launceston.