Jetstar International's Hawaiian Aloha
By Steve Creedy, The Australian | Aug. 16, 2006
Jetstar International hopes to begin flying to Honolulu before Christmas after receiving US permission for five services a week, and it is now training its sights on Singapore.
Jetstar received US Department of Transportation approval to fly the five weekly services, despite opposition from United Airlines, which had argued the route should be used to negotiate an open skies agreement with Australia.
The decision will also boost Virgin Blue, which is investigating launching daily services to the US that will also need Department of Transportation approval.
Subject to full regulatory approval, Jetstar plans to operate three direct Sydney-Honolulu flights per week and two between Melbourne and Honolulu.
The flights will be in addition to three Qantas flights a week to Hawaii.
Jetstar will now lodge a tariff filing with the US so it can begin selling fares. Chief executive Alan Joyce said it hoped to be able to take reservations in coming weeks.
The favourable US decision came as Qantas filed an application with the International Air Services Commission to change its approvals to fly to Singapore and Britain to include Jetstar.
The applications pave the way for Singapore services by Jetstar International and, when new Boeing 787 planes arrive, two-stage routes to London. This will allow the budget carrier to work more closely with Singapore-based sister airline Jetstar Asia. Jetstar and Qantas also want to be able to codeshare on each other's services.
The Singapore application says Jetstar is evaluating options for serving the city state from this year's northern winter season and the two airlines should be able to codeshare freely for "maximum flexibility".
Qantas has also asked for a variation on its British route, to take into account the recent breakthrough in negotiations between the Australian and British governments that removed restrictions on capacity and frequency.
It wants the existing agreement revoked and replaced by a single determination lasting 10 years, with no limits on capacity and cargo services, including for "wholly owned subsidiaries".
Meanwhile, Advent Air said yesterday that it had acceptances for more than 90 per cent of the shares in its takeover bid through subsidiary CaptiveVision Capital for Perth-based regional carrier Skywest Airlines.
An ASX statement said Advent intended to exercise its rights to compulsorily acquire any remaining balance of shares to increase its interest to 100 per cent.