Qantas Group to Increase Domestic Capacity

The Qantas Group is planning to increase capacity across its domestic route network by 9.6%, including a number of new routes for both Qantas and Jetstar.

Group capacity is expected to increase by more than 66,000 seats per week once fully implemented, with the addition of new aircraft to the domestic fleet and in response to the recovering domestic market.

“The changes will see around 65 additional return services for Qantas and around 120 return services for Jetstar introduced across selected routes,” said Qantas Chief Executive Officer, Mr Alan Joyce. “Seven additional aircraft will be deployed on the Qantas domestic network this financial year. In July 2010, we added a B767-300 to grow routes including the key east – west market of Sydney to Perth.”

An Airbus A330-200 will be added from January with a further five Boeing 737-800s being progressively added to the domestic network from March 2011.

“These aircraft will be deployed on a variety of growth markets, including the east coast, east – west and intra WA markets,” Mr Joyce said.

Qantas will commence direct Brisbane-Broome services next year, resulting in Broome becoming the third destination behind Perth and Karratha that Queensland passengers can fly to direct from Brisbane. The new services will be seasonal, operating from April-October, to coincide with the Broome dry season.

This new service will join Broome-Melbourne and Broome-Sydney services, resulting in passengers from the popular tourist destination being able to fly direct from Broome to three east-coast destinations, as well as Perth.

Mr Joyce said Jetstar would also add new routes and increase services to key leisure destinations across Australia.

“Jetstar plans to increase Australian domestic capacity by up to 30% in this financial year,” Mr Joyce said. “Last week Jetstar announced new services in Perth and Launceston and has detailed additional services to Cairns – an important tourism destination ... Qantas and Jetstar now jointly operate on over 20 routes across Australia, including the high traffic Sydney to Melbourne route.”

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