Budget airline Jetstar launches Tokyo-Australia flights

TOKYO, Dec. 18 Kyodo - Australian budget airline Jetstar Airways Pty Ltd. launched Thursday regular flight services between Japan's Narita airport and two Australian resorts as the company pinned hopes on a boost in Japanese travelers amid the weaker Australian dollar and plummeting oil prices.
In a one-day opening campaign, the subsidiary of Qantas Airways Ltd. also
offered two-way tickets at a knockdown price of 8,000 yen to Cairns and the
Gold Coast as it accepted orders at the discount price from 6 a.m. Thursday to
midnight.
Jetstar will operate 19 direct flights between the two countries, offering
daily flights between Cairns and Tokyo, and five flights between Narita and the
Gold Coast each week. The airline recently said it will eventually offer daily
flights between Tokyo and Gold Coast from next March 29.
The company said it hopes to attract between 170,000 to 180,000 travelers from
Japan to Australia through the expanded routes.
While airlines worldwide have been reeling under the global economic slowdown,
Jetstar Chief Executive Officer Bruce Buchanan said the recent depreciation of
the Australian currency and falling crude oil prices resulting from the
financial turmoil have actually brightened the outlook for the company.
''We'll continue to grow aggressively even in these challenging times,'' he
said at a press conference in Tokyo.
Taking various measures, such as charging for meals and blankets, to achieve
discount fares, the Qantas group airline will charge regular round-trip fares
of 40,000 on the Narita-Cairns route, 50,000 yen on the Narita-Gold Coast
route, and 60,000 yen on the Narita-Sydney route, all of which are
substantially lower than the fares of other major airlines.
''We pride ourselves on offering discounts not 5 or 10 percent, but discounts
more like 50 percent,'' Buchanan said.
In light of the plummeting crude oil prices, Masaru Kataoka, Jetstar's regional
general manager for Japan, said the company also currently asks for a fuel
surcharge of only 12,000 yen, nearly one-third of Japan Airlines Corp.'s fuel
surcharge.
Benchmark crude oil futures in New York slid to a four-year low in the upper
$40 level per barrel earlier this month, compared with an all-time high in the
$147 level per barrel marked in July.
According to government data, Japanese travelers to Australia have been
steadily declining in the past few years particularly on the heels of a strong
Australian dollar. The number of Japanese travelers to the Oceania region
dropped nearly 30 percent from a year earlier to 417,257 travelers last year.
But Buchanan said the recent depreciation of the Australian currency will make
travel to Australia more affordable and boost profitability for routes from
Japan.
''Everything you do in Australia is cheaper,'' he said. ''Things look fairly
good in terms of outlook.''
In line with the drop in crude oil prices, the Australian dollar has fallen
from this year's high in the mid-104 yen level logged in July to around the 61
yen level.
Jetstar entered the Japanese market by offering its first international
services between Japan and Australia in March last year with the
Sydney-Osaka-Brisbane route.
==Kyodo