Jetstar has announced that it will connect Brisbane and Perth with nonstop flights. The new service is Jetstar’s 2nd significant route announcement from Brisbane and the carrier’s 7th new route in the past 12 months.
Coast-to-Coast nonstop
Starting 2nd November 2021, Jetstar will fly nonstop between Brisbane International Airport and Perth International Airport. The flights will be operated by an Airbus A320-200 that features an all economy-class configuration in a 3-3-3 layout.
The schedule for the flight is:
- Brisbane-Perth
- Departure time: 18:55
- Arrival time: 22:20
- Flight time: 5 hours and 25 minutes
- Flight number: JQ969
- Frequency: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays
- Perth-Brisbane
- Departure time: 23:00
- Arrival time: 05:20
- Flight time: 4 hours and 20 minutes
- Flight number: JQ968
- Frequency: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays
Gareth Evans, CEO, Jetstar, said:
We’re excited to help make travel between the east and west coasts even more accessible by introducing our low fares between Perth and Brisbane. While international borders remain closed, we’re seeing significant demand for low fares travel domestically, with recent customer surveys showing that travellers keen to explore parts of Australia they’ve never previously been to. We expect these flights to be really popular with holiday makers, with Brisbane and Perth being gateways to some of Australia’s most beautiful coastlines and unique attractions, such as sand tobogganing on Morton Island in the east and visiting the Quokkas on Rottnest Island in the west. This will be a great boost for tourism operators and businesses, and we thank the Queensland Government for their support in launching this new route.
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Not the only airline to fly the route
This announcement comes after the low-cost carrier recently announced nonstop flights between Brisbane and Canberra, marking the 1st time that the airline will operate flights to the Australian capital.
Jetstar is not the only airline on the Perth-Brisbane route. Qantas and Virgin Australia already operates multiple frequencies on the route. Qantas runs up to five flights a day in both directions, mostly deployed Boeing 737-800s. However, from Wednesday, it is also deploying flagship Boeing B787 Dreamliners on the route. The B787 will operate once a day in each direction.
Virgin Australia operates 2 or 3 flights depending on the day in each direction using B737-800s.
Commenting on the new route launch, Stirling Hinchliffe, Tourism Minister of Queensland, said:
Now is good time to start planning your next summer holiday in Brisbane with a great climate, bay islands, national parks and beautiful beaches all within easy reach of Queensland’s capital. Brisbane the place to be for one of Australia’s favourite holiday destinations and it all begins with our world-famous Queensland hospitality.
Jim Parashos, Executive General Manager Aviation, Brisbane Airport Corporation, said:
Today’s announcement is wonderful news for travellers who will now have more options to travel between Brisbane and Perth. We applaud Jetstar Group’s commitment to bolstering its network from Brisbane and look forward to working with them to continue this growth, which has already seen Jetstar grow its Brisbane based fleet in 2021.
Brisbane-Perth route never a natural fit for Jetstar
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brisbane-Perth route has been battered by border closures at both ends and a decline in business travel. The route is dominated by business travellers, commuting between Australia’s big two resource capital cities. The sizeable business travel market attractes big fares. As a result, flights between the two major cities of Australia have been some of the most expensive to fly to.
Until now, Jetstar has left the route to Qantas and Virgin Australia. Instead of this route, Jetstar ran a daily flight between Perth and Gold Coast, which is just south of Brisbane. The airline mainly focused on leisure travellers and has long proved a good fit. Parent company Qantas ignored Gold Coast and flew from Brisbane. It’s an arrangement that worked out well for both airlines.
As international travel from Australia is largely banned and we do not expect it to open anytime soon, Australian airlines have been increasing domestic flying. Qantas has launched onto many new domestic routes in the last 12 months, including many Jetstar had enjoyed a monopoly on. In September, Qantas is starting flights on Perth-Gold Coast route. The full-service parent airline is also starting new flights on other Jetstar routes, such as Adelaide-Hobart, Sydney-Uluru and Melbourne-Townsville.
With Virgin Australia operating a scaled-back network and its subsidiary TigerAir now defunct, Jetstar and Qantas are in a pole position in the Australian domestic market.
Featured image by HRM Asia
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