On 15th September, The Qantas Group announced that Jetstar would commence daily operations on the Cairns-Darwin-Singapore route from 29 October, replacing the current five weekly Qantas B767 services.

The Executive General Manager of Qantas, Mr John Borghetti, said the move to a daily Airbus A320 operation would increase capacity on the route by around 10 per cent, or 115 seats.

"The change is in line with our well established, successful strategy of developing the two brands of Qantas and Jetstar," Mr Borghetti said.

"Our Cairns-Darwin-Singapore services predominantly cater for inbound leisure travellers, so the Jetstar model and style of service is the most appropriate for this route.

"Jetstar's Darwin-Singapore services will be timed to connect with Qantas international services between Singapore and Europe," he said.

Mr Borghetti said that in addition to daily Jetstar Cairns-Darwin-Singapore services, Qantas would continue to operate five international services each week from Darwin and 30 international services from Cairns including:

• Two return Darwin-Denpasar services;
• Three flights from Sydney to Mumbai via Darwin;
• Seven return Cairns-Nagoya services;
• Seven return Cairns-Osaka services;
• Two services from Melbourne to Sapporo via Cairns;
• And 14 return Cairns-Narita services.

He said that in addition, the Group would continue to operate 69 return Darwin domestic services and 206 domestic Cairns return services each week, including daily Qantas services between Darwin and Cairns and a daily QantasLink Darwin-Gove-Cairns service, as well as:

Darwin:

• 14 services to Alice Springs, including daily flights operated by Qantas and QantasLink;
• 13 services to Brisbane, including daily Qantas flights and six Jetstar services;
• 11 services to Adelaide, including daily Qantas flights and four Jetstar services;
• Daily Qantas services to Sydney;
• Daily Qantas services to Perth;
• Daily Qantas services to Cairns;
• Three Jetstar services to Melbourne;
• And daily QantasLink services to Gove.

Cairns:

• Qantas services to Brisbane (28), Sydney (25), Ayers Rock (7), Darwin (7), Melbourne (7), and Perth (2);
• QantasLink services to Alice Springs (7), Ayers Rock (7), Townsville (33), Gove (7), Hamilton Island (13), Horn Island (14), and Weipa (13);
• And Jetstar services to Adelaide (3), Brisbane (19), Melbourne (7) and Sydney (7).

Mr Borghetti said Qantas would codeshare on the new Jetstar flights.

"Qantas codeshare customers will be offered complimentary inflight meals and amenities, and Qantas Club members will have access to Qantas-operated lounges at international airports," he said.

Mr Borghetti said Qantas would continue to offer freight capacity on the route on its B767 services, connecting at the airline's world-class Brisbane freight facility to the Qantas worldwide network.

Customers affected by the schedule change will be contacted by Qantas or their travel agent.