Jetstar keeping its customers connected through international operations between Australia and Asia

Jetstar launched its daily Melbourne-Darwin-Singapore service yesterday in the next step of its planned expansion of international operations between Australia and Asia.

The one stop access between Melbourne and Singapore will be supported by Jetstar’s expanding narrow body fleet.

The new service will create a double daily service offering between Singapore and Darwin with Jetstar already operating a daily Cairns-Darwin-Singapore service.

The will see Jetstar operate the only direct daylight return service each day between Melbourne and Darwin.

Jetstar CEO Alan Joyce said the value based carrier had sought to strategically grow its operations in Darwin since its May 2006 start-up in Australia’s northern international gateway.

“Since launching Darwin services in May 2006, Jetstar has more than doubled its capacity through our sustainable growth in services,” Mr Joyce said.

“Strong market demand and the growing impact of our brand both here and in Asia has been the catalyst for our continued growth out of Darwin.

“The current number of weekly direct services to Darwin from Melbourne, Cairns, Adelaide and Brisbane is supporting our planning around a future Jetstar hub and the role it would play in our expanding short-haul domestic and international network.”

Jetstar has continued to work with Northern Territory Airports and the Northern Territory Government to progress development of infrastructure and support for successful growth of Darwin as a future short haul hub into Asia.

Jetstar Executives were in Darwin today to celebrate the inaugural service and to continue growth discussions with key stakeholders.

“Northern Territory Airports and the Northern Territory Government remain the most critical partners in Jetstar’s ability to grow flights and services from Darwin,” Mr Joyce said.

“Discussions are going well and remain very positive.   We highly value the contribution our stakeholders are bringing to the table as we prepare the strategic plan for our next phase of short-haul growth.

“Welcoming today’s flight and its future success is a positive step towards the development of a future hub and new services for Darwin.”

The Melbourne-Darwin-Singapore service operates as a domestic to international connecting flight through Darwin with passengers departing from Jetstar’s domestic facility at Melbourne Airport, checking in once only and receiving two boarding passes for both flight sectors to Singapore.  The same convenient service applies southbound from Singapore.

Jetstar now operates to Darwin a double daily Melbourne-Darwin service, double daily between Darwin - Singapore, daily direct from Cairns and six times weekly between Brisbane-Darwin service and five times weekly between Adelaide-Darwin.

To celebrate the inaugural service, Jetstar is now on sale with one way inclusive web fares between Melbourne - Darwin starting from $89* and one way inclusive web fares from Darwin - Singapore from $189*.  The sale is for travel between the periods 30 April - 19 June 2008 and 15 October - 10 December 2008.  Fares are subject to availability and are not available on all flights or days.