Low fares leader Jetstar will further expand its domestic low fare offering for Cairns by almost 30 per cent from early 2011, announcing new additional daily services from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and building to a daily return Gold Coast-Cairns flight.

Jetstar’s new capacity represents 25 additional weekly return services to Cairns, increasing to 93 weekly return low fare flights serving seven Australian cities from the airline’s expanding Cairns hub.

Jetstar Group Chief Executive Officer Bruce Buchanan, who visited Cairns today, said this growth of 8850 more weekly seats represented Jetstar’s single largest injection of new domestic flying for Cairns.

“Jetstar will now be at record operational capacity on Melbourne-Cairns and Sydney-Cairns routes and complement Qantas on the largest Brisbane-Cairns market. Through Jetstar’s low fares, customers are responding to make these routes amongst Australia’s fastest growing air markets,” Mr Buchanan said.

“Our commitment to building to a daily Gold Coast-Cairns service will also better support inbound international visitation.”’

In June 2010 compared to June 2009 passenger data from the Federal Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics (BITRE) measured the Melbourne and Sydney routes growing by 25 and 19 per cent respectively in passenger numbers, displaying a Jetstar effect from prior growth.

From April 2011 Jetstar will offer 12 daily domestic return services to Cairns and provide convenient and real connectivity to vital international markets such as Japan and New Zealand on Jetstar.

Earlier this year Jetstar grew prior Cairns operations by 18 extra weekly services introducing from Perth and more Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney flights on Jetstar and a future direct Auckland service.

Mr Buchanan said Jetstar remained committed to offering the lowest fares through the Jetstar Price Beat Guarantee* whereby the airline will beat its competitors by 10 per cent.