Jetstar to Grow NZ Fleet to 8 Jets

Jetstar, hot on the heels of the Pacific Blue exit announcement, says it will significantly grow its domestic New Zealand operations over the next year “solidifying its position” as New Zealand's second airline.

The airline will position an additional two A320 aircraft in New Zealand in coming months, bringing its total fleet of NZ based aircraft to eight. A seventh aircraft will enter service in December with an eighth aircraft anticipated to commence end 2010/early 2011.

Jetstar Group CEO Bruce Buchanan said the positioning of two extra A320 aircraft in New Zealand would further grow Jetstar's low fare offering for the benefit of Kiwi travellers.

Mr Buchanan said Jetstar would continue to provide a viable and sustained competitive offering in the domestic NZ market and will keep fares low through customer choice.

“We plan to further grow our existing domestic NZ routes and will investigate new destinations in line with our strong and expanding market presence since commencing domestic flying in June 2009.

“Jetstar has embedded itself as one of NZ's two domestic airlines and as the clear low fares leader we will continue to invest in new services and growth.”

Mr Buchanan said Jetstar would look to build more frequencies from existing key ports in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington with an expanded domestic NZ operation well in place in advance of the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

Jetstar's seventh A320 aircraft will support more domestic and trans Tasman flying including the launch of Melbourne- Queenstown, Gold Coast-Queenstown and Auckland-Cairns flying, as well as incremental Auckland-Wellington and Auckland-Queenstown services.

Jetstar operates on five existing domestic NZ routes between Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Queenstown and a Trans Tasman network commercially supporting ten routes.

Announcements regarding aircraft scheduling with additional fleet will be made in the near future.