Qantas has lodged an application with the International Air Services Commission (IASC) seeking an allocation for QantasLink to operate services from Cairns to Port Moresby from July 2010.
The brief application notes that the airline seeks an allocation of 888 seats per week to operate 12 weekly services on the route using the 74-seat Bombardier Q400. Qantas has requested the allocation for five years, with the capacity to be fully used by December 31.
If the services are approved, it would put Qantas in competition with Air Niugini and Airlines PNG between Cairns and Port Moresby. Qantas currently codeshares on the Air Niugini services, and it has not indicated if it plans to continue this codeshare arrangement once its own services start.
