Low fares leader Jetstar will this week introduce 22 additional weekly services for the important Cairns market, with the relaunch of a direct international Cairns-Osaka A330 service and extra domestic flights between Cairns and Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.

From Thursday 1 April, Jetstar will introduce a four times weekly direct service between Cairns and Osaka (Kansai International Airport) operated by its two class, A330-200 fleet.

The flights complement Jetstar’s Cairns-Tokyo (Narita) daily service, expanding its low fare flights between Cairns and Japan to 11 times weekly, supported by its aircraft and crew base in Cairns.

Jetstar Chief Executive Officer Bruce Buchanan said expanding the low fare airline’s operations in Cairns by more than 40 percent reflected its continued confidence in Far North Queensland as a primary international and domestic leisure destination.

“Cairns, as the gateway to Tropical Australia, holds great appeal for local and international travellers and our latest growth in flights reaffirms Cairns as one of our most popular destinations on Jetstar’s fast growing Australasian and South East Asian flying network,” Mr Buchanan said.

“Jetstar’s recently secured long-term agreement with Cairns International Airport and our partnership in growth with them was a catalyst for these additional low fare flights.

“Our 22 new return flights added from this week, including more international flights to Japan, will increase the number of Jetstar’s seats to or from Cairns by more than 10,000 each week compared with April last year and represents major growth for Jetstar in Far North Queensland.”

Jetstar’s new Cairns services are:

Jetstar also continues to serve the important domestic markets of Cairns-Brisbane (3 times daily / 21 per week) and Cairns-Gold Coast (3 times weekly) with its A320 family fleet.

Mr Buchanan said Jetstar offered more weekly services between Australia and Japan than any other carrier and the new flights would help stimulate the number of Japanese visitors to Far North Queensland with both direct links and improved domestic flight access.

Jetstar has launched a special 2-for-1 sale for travel between Cairns and Tokyo or Osaka. Two passengers can travel between Cairns and Osaka from $329 one way with a JetSaver Light fare, working out at $164.50 each. Sale ends at midnight (AEDT) Wednesday 31 March 2010 unless sold out prior. Full details at Jetstar.com.

Mr Buchanan said as part of Jetstar’s continued promotion of Australia in Japan, Japanese megastar and airline ambassador ‘Becky’ and her entourage will exclusively visit Cairns during April to film a new campaign designed by Jetstar and supported by its tourism partners to encourage more future Japanese visitors to Far North Queensland.

“Since we started flying between Cairns and Japan in August 2007, we’ve carried more than 410,000 passengers on this important international route,” Mr Buchanan said.

“It has been a challenging past year in the Japanese market, with the impacts of a global financial crisis, the strength of the Australian dollar against the Japanese Yen and the impact of H1N1 flu on the Australia-Japan route.

“Future success for our new Cairns-Osaka services will be best achieved by working closely with our local partners, led by Cairns International Airport, Tourism Queensland and Tourism Tropical North Queensland.”

Jetstar’s strong domestic schedule for Cairns will now support an extra 18 weekly interstate services from this week.

From 28 March, Jetstar’s direct Cairns-Perth services increased from 3 to 5 times weekly and Cairns Adelaide services by an extra two weekly return flights rising to 6 times weekly.

From 1 April both Cairns-Sydney and Cairns-Melbourne services will double to each operate twice daily (14 times weekly) with new afternoon / early evening operations, some on Jetstar’s larger A321 fleet (up to 214 seat configured).

Cairns Airport Pty Ltd Chief Executive Officer Stephen Gregg said the recommencement of Jetstar’s Cairns-Osaka service and the introduction of extra domestic flights between key cities, reflects the confidence Jetstar has in the region.

“We are seeing the roll out of the first initiatives generated by the air services agreement between Jetstar and Cairns Airport Pty Ltd put in place late last year and we look forward to a long and successful partnership as we work together in the future,” Mr Gregg said.

CEO of Tourism Tropical North Queensland Rob Giason said the Jetstar service from Osaka will meet the continuing demand for leisure travel to the Cairns and Great Barrier Reef region from western Japan.

“Growth in seats to Cairns from the Japanese market will mean real growth for Australia overall as Cairns is the number one preferred destination in Australia for Japanese visitors,” Mr Giason said.

“We also welcome the additional Jetstar services from Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth that commence this week bringing more than 186,000 domestic seats into Cairns annually.”

Osaka (Kansai) – Cairns A330 schedule from 1 April 2010 (Departure times shown)

Departs Monday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday from Kansai International Airport

• Osaka – Cairns: JQ 16 20.25pm
• Cairns – Osaka: JQ 15 12.20pm