Jetstar is bringing back non-stop service between the Gold Coast and Perth, and introducing new international routes to Indonesia and New Zealand from March 2015 through improved fleet utilisation.
The Qantas-owned low-cost carrier said it will be the first airline to offer direct flights between Cairns and Bali when its three-times-a-week flights begin on March 31 with Airbus A320 aircraft.
Meanwhile, the new Melbourne-Wellington service will run four days a week from March 30 and be up against existing operators Air New Zealand and parent Qantas already on the route.
Jetstar Australia and New Zealand chief executive David Hall said the new services represented about 4,000 extra seats a week and was achieved through better use of the existing fleet.
“We’ve done a lot of work revamping our schedule to ensure we can deliver more seats with our existing aircraft,” Hall said in a statement on Wednesday.
“We always need to look for opportunities to increase the utilisation of our aircraft so that we can keep costs down across the network and continue offering the lowest fares to our customers.”
Jetstar said improved market conditions over the past year had paved the way for the reinstatement of Gold Coast-Perth, which the airline suspended in October 2013. It will be the only operator on the route when flights start on March 29.
All three new services involve an overnight red-eye flight in one direction, according to dummy bookings on the Jetstar website.
There will be up to six flights a week between the WA capital and popular Queensland tourist strip, with an evening departure out of the Gold Coast and an overnight red-eye service from Perth.
The Melbourne-Wellington schedule is a red-eye from Tullamarine, landing in the NZ capital at 0605 local time, while the return flight takes off for Melbourne at 0645.
Finally, JQ90 departs Cairns at 2250 local time and arrives in Bali at 0130 the next day, with the reciprocal JQ91 scheduled to head back to Cairns at 0220.
