Jetstar Kicks Off 2012 With More Flights For Singapore Hub

By Tengku Noor Shamsiah Tengku Abdullah SINGAPORE, Jan 10 (Bernama) -- Jetstar has announced new routes and services which will see the budget airline kicing off the year with an additional 8,500 seats for its hub here. The extra capacity includes over 40 new weekly services to popular destinations in Australia, Japan, Vietnam and Greater China. Today the airline announced a second daily service on the Singapore-Taipei-Osaka route and three new weekly services between Singapore and Darwin, bringing the weekly offering to 10. The airline is also adding a new Darwin-Manila-Narita service. This new capacity follows the commencement last month of new routes to Guangzhou and Hanoi and additional services to Ho Chi Minh City. Jetstar Group chief executive officer, Bruce Buchanan, said adding services on popular routes was contributing to the carrier’s "critical mass" across Asia-Pacific. "The growth in low-fare services from our hub here is creating new travel demand in the region, which then fuels more growth and gives us economies of scale to keep the low fares coming," he said at the launch of the new services here Tuesday. Buchanan said this year, the airline would focus on joining more dots on its route map, particularly in terms of a revitalised Vietnam presence and a new network with Jetstar Japan. "Our goal is to be the number one low-cost carrier in all of the markets we operate by combining low fares, customer choice and great service," he said. Meanwhile, Jetstar Asia chief executive officer, Chong Phit Lian, said new fleet capacity had allowed the carrier to focus both on expanding capacity on existing routes but also on new market opportunities. She said boosting services on its popular routes like Singapore–Taipei–Osaka would give Jetstar Asia great momentum to start 2012. As part of network changes announced today, Jetstar will suspend services between Singapore and Macau from Feb 5, 2012. Jetstar, which flies to almost 60 destinations in 17 countries, is the fastest growing low-cost airline in Asia-Pacific. -- BERNAMA