Qantas Jetconnect & Jetstar

As forecast yesterday there has been an announcement from Jetstar and Qantas Jetconnect.

From 10 June 2009 Jetstar will begin flying domestically in NZ with two 177 seat A230s. They will begin to replace Qantas Jetconnect services. From 24 June 2009 they will add a 3rd A320 and completely replace Qantas on domestic services.

The new Jetstar operating will be as follows

From 10 June 2009
Auckland – Christchurch 5 times daily
Auckland – Wellington 2 times daily
Auckland – Queenstown Daily
Christchurch – Queenstown Daily

From 24 June 2009
Auckland – Christchurch 6 times daily
Auckland – Wellington 3 times daily
Auckland – Queenstown Daily
Christchurch – Wellington Daily
Christchurch – Queenstown Daily

This marks some change to Qantas group domestic services. June 24 sees the reintroduction of services between CHC and WLG albeit 1x daily. It also sees the end of Jet services into Rotorua, with JQ stating its A320s are too large to be operated safely into ROT. Wellington will also loose two daily return flights to Auckland.

It is also noted that currently QF operate 13 daily return flights on the domestic network and when JQ is fully operational from 24 June it will only operate 12 daily return flights. But it should also be noted that with the change to 177 seat A320s there will be an increase in capacity of 43%.

Passengers with bookings on Qantas services after 10 June will be accommodated on the new Jetstar services. All Trans-Tasman and Domestic services will be code shared allowing seamless transfers. Passengers will also be able to earn and use QF Frequent Flyer points on JQ domestic services.

Qantas Jetconnect will solely focus on Trans-Tasman services. Its fleet of Boeing 733 and 734 aircraft will be replaced by 738s between September and November. It is expected that the 733s will be retired immediately with the 734s continuing to operate the Trans-Tasman services until the 738s are introduced.

Qantas have also announced that the WLG-BNE return weekend flights will be ended, meaning QF will no longer connect WLG and BNE direct. They will also increase AKL-MEL return flights to 3x daily and AKL-SYD return to 5x daily. They will also alter the timing of the MEL-AKL-LAX QF25 service to offer better connections to QF107 LAX-JFK.

Trans-Tasman services will look like this:

Auckland
Operated by Qantas
SYD 5x daily, BNE 2x daily, MEL 3x daily, LAX 1x daily
Operated by Jetstar
SYD 1x daily, OOL 1x daily
Christchurch
Operated by Qantas
SYD 1x daily
Operated by Jetstar
SYD 10x weekly, MEL 9x weekly, BNE 1x daily, OOL 2x weekly
Wellington
Operated by Qantas
SYD 2x daily, MEL 1x daily
Queenstown
Operated by Qantas
SYD 2x weekly, MEL 2x weekly, BNE (Seasonal)

A full copy of the Qantas/Jetstar press release can be obtained from the ASX site HERE or visit the Jetstar website or the Qantas website

Codes:
AKL: Auckland
BNE: Brisbane
CHC: Christchurch
MEL: Melbourne
OOL: Coolangatta/Gold Coast
ROT: Rotorua
SYD: Sydney
ZQN: Queenstown
JQ: Jetstar
QF: Qantas & Qanats Jetconnect