Budget carrier Jetstar plans to start low-cost long-haul flights
Jetstar, the low-cost offshoot of Australian flag-carrier Qantas, said Wednesday it will launch long-haul flights from Singapore to Australia, North Asia and Europe to tap on growing demand.
The new budget service is expected to commence from Singapore's Changi airport late this year, Jetstar said in a statement.
"Jetstar continues to grow strongly as we build our pan-Asian presence," chief executive Bruce Buchanan said in the statement.
Company spokesman Simon Westaway said Jetstar's plans to operate the long-haul budget service out of Singapore reflects the carrier's ambitions to tap growing demand for air travel in the region.
"IATA figures say the Asian market is now the largest in the world," Westaway told AFP after a press briefing in Singapore.
"It's only going to expand. The reason that we are doing all the investment in Asia is that we want us to be an Asian success in Asia because that's where the growth is."
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said earlier this year the Asia-Pacific region had overtaken North America as the world's largest air travel market with 647 million passengers in 2009.
Jetstar's experience from its international flights out of Australia has demonstrated that there is travel demand even in a shrinking market if the pricing is competitive, Westaway said.
He cited the Australia-Japan route as an example where Jetstar has enjoyed 35 percent growth in annual traffic even though the overall market is shrinking.
"So even in contracting markets, what's happening is that the customer base is moving towards the value-based providers because of obviously affordability," he said.
Westaway said the first long-haul flight out of Singapore is expected to take off in December but the destination has not yet been finalised and that the carrier will offer competitive fares.
"We will be very low-fare in the market. We will try to bring the overall low fares down by around 30 percent," he said.
Jetstar's fare pricing is on average 35-40 percent below that of Qantas, Westaway said.
Two new A330-200 jets will be deployed for the new service and Jetstar will be taking delivery of the first aircraft in November.
The carrier already operates long-haul services from Australia to destinations including Bali, Tokyo, Osaka, Bangkok, Phuket and Honolulu.
It's Singapore-based affiliate Jetstar Asia currently flies to short-haul destinations from the city-state.
-News courtesy of Channel Newsasia-
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