A report in The Sydney Morning Herald says that Jetstar has wasted little time attempting to spoil Tiger Airways’s planned entry into the Australian domestic market.
When speculation was rife a fortnight ago that Tiger was looking to launch flights to the Gold Coast, Jetstar suddenly announced it would bump up services to the resort city. But with Tiger announcing plans last week to launch its first services between Melbourne and Darwin, Jetstar suddenly began taking an interest in Australia’s 46th busiest air route.
The airline has announced it will maintain daily flights on the route and even consider using it as a stopping point into Asia – just like Tiger.
“Our aim is to grow services and traffic into any market that responds well to our market entry, and Darwin has been no exception,” Jetstar boss Alan Joyce said yesterday.
Looks like Jetstar is keen on using the extra nine A320 aircraft joining its fleet in order to snuff out any planned entry by Tiger anywhere in the domestic market.
So far, however, Tiger’s entry into Darwin should not sound too many alarm bells for Jetstar, Qantas or Virgin Blue – yet. (It accounts for less than 0.3 per cent of the domestic market.)
The trouble is expected to come when Tiger gets its air operator’s certificate to operate services within Australia.
Report by The Mole and the Sydney Morning Herald
