• * Direct services between Melbourne and Honolulu take off from 15 December*
• * Increase in flights to Bali from Melbourne and Sydney
• * Combines with additional domestic capacity to give travellers more choice

Jetstar is offering Australians more choice in where they take a break, today announcing additional international flights to its most popular island destinations and reinstatement of its direct Melbourne – Honolulu* service.

The additional long-haul capacity will provide up to 19,000 extra seats a month for holidaymakers to overseas destinations. This follows previously-announced capacity increases to domestic leisure destinations including Cairns and the Gold Coast.

Jetstar’s Sydney to Phuket route will increase to four flights a week and services to Bali from Melbourne and Sydney will increase to daily.

Following strong market demand, Jetstar is reinstating its non-stop Melbourne – Honolulu route with three weekly return services to Hawaii.

Since 2008, Jetstar customers travelling to Honolulu have connected via Sydney.

These flights, on sale from today, start from 15 December 2012 and will use the airline’s A330 fleet.

Jetstar Group CEO, Jayne Hrdlicka, said the additional capacity was in response to strong customer demand and would take off in time for summer school holidays.

“Jetstar specialises in putting more holiday destinations within reach for more people through low fares, domestically and internationally,” Ms Hrdlicka said.

“We’ve injected hundreds-of-thousands of additional seats into the Australian east coast for the next year and now we’re adding additional capacity to Bali, Phuket and Honolulu routes.

“As a business, by focusing on managing our costs and getting our price points right we’re able to tap into strong underlying travel demand with highly competitive fares and a great product.

“Our iPads continue to be extremely popular on long-haul flights and the take-up of our holiday packages to island destinations is strong,” added Ms Hrdlicka.

The lead in fare price for Melbourne – Honolulu is AUD$499.

Jetstar pioneered low fares long haul flying in 2007. The airline’s fleet of 11 A330s, with an average age of four years, are configured to seat up to 310 passengers across economy and business class. Jetstar Airways was recently named the best low fares airline for Australia/Pacific by travellers in the Skytrax World Airline Awards.

* subject to government and regulatory approval

SUMMARY OF INCREASED CAPACITY – from 15 December 2012

Route: Frequency - Lead-in Economy Fare - Lead-in Business Fare

Melbourne- Honolulu* 

• 2 x per week (reinstated and increasing + 1pw from March 2013)
• $499
• $999

Sydney-Phuket

• 4 x per week (increase of 33 per cent or + 1 pw)
• $469
• $759

Sydney-Bali

• 7 x per week (increase of 17 per cent or + 1pw)
• $399
• $809

Melbourne-Bali

• 7 per week (increase of 40 per cent or + 2pw)
• $399
• $50 AUD

* subject to government and regulatory approval