On August 28, the Qantas Group announced it would move to an all wide-body, twin-aisle aircraft on all of its services from Perth to Sydney and Melbourne within the next two years.

Qantas Executive General Manager John Borghetti said the move, which would see Airbus A330 and Boeing 767 aircraft exclusively used on these services, would provide more than 61,000 seats - an increase of more than 11,700 seats on these routes.

"This decision is a sign of our commitment to Western Australia, which is one of the biggest growth markets in Australia," Mr Borghetti said.

"We believe our all wide-body service on these key trans-continental business routes will ensure Qantas is offering the capacity, frequency, and comfort appropriate for the market," he said.

Mr Borghetti said Qantas was equally committed to intrastate markets, with 5,000 additional seats coming on line by June 2008.

"In the year ahead, we will continue to grow capacity within the state, operating larger aircraft and increasing frequencies," Mr Borghetti said.

He said that from June 2008, Qantas and QantasLink would add:

• five additional B737 services a week between Perth and Karratha;
• five new B737 services a week between Perth and Port Hedland, replacing the current B717 services;
• three additional B717 services a week between Perth and Broome; and
• two additional B717 services a week between Perth and Newman.

"This follows our announcement earlier in the year about new QantasLink services between Perth and Karratha, Kalgoorlie and Broome, all of which commence in November 2007. Together these new services will take the total number of seats on our intrastate WA services to 34,380 seats a week."

Mr Borghetti said Qantas was also making changes to its international services out of Perth.

"We will introduce Airbus A330 services between Perth and Hong Kong from January 2008, replacing the current B767s operating on the route and providing customers with Skybed in Business Class and our Audio/Video on Demand (AVOD) inflight entertainment system in both Business and Economy class cabins," he said.

Mr Borghetti said the international B767 fleet currently operating these services would be deployed on domestic Perth services.

He said Qantas' AU$50 million development at Perth Airport, announced earlier, would improve the airport experience for Qantas passengers as the airline continued to grow its Western Australia services.

"The airport development, which will commence by the end of 2007, will be a two year project and ensure we have better facilities for passengers, aircraft and baggage for our current operations as well as meeting the growth demand of the future."

In Western Australia, the Qantas Group currently operates:

• 47 return services per week to Melbourne;
• 37 return services per week to Sydney from Perth;
• seven return Perth-Melbourne (Avalon) services operated by Jetstar; and
• 109 return services weekly to Karratha, Port Hedland, Paraburdoo, Newman, Broome and Kalgoorlie by QantasLink and Qantas.