Australia’s low fares airline Jetstar has today celebrated the arrival of its inaugural three times weekly Gold Coast – Cairns A320 service, connecting two iconic Queensland destinations via the growing Jetstar network, and reintroducing Qantas Group service access from western Japan to Tropical North Queensland.

Jetstar’s new three times weekly Cairns-Gold Coast A320 service reintroduces services between Osaka and Cairns via Jetstar’s Gold Coast flying hub, as a domestic service connecting directly with the value based carrier’s daily A330 Gold Coast – Osaka two class international operation.

On Friday 6 February 2009, Jetstar’s inaugural three times weekly flight from Perth will also touch down in Cairns, replacing Qantas’ existing twice weekly B737 service and boosting capacity by 60 per cent on the route.

Jetstar’s every day one way fares (JetSaver Light) between Cairns-Gold Coast start from $89 and Perth-Cairns start from $189 at Jetstar.com.

Jetstar is committed to offering the lowest every day fares. Jetstar’s Price Beat Guarantee on all of the airline’s domestic and international services means when booking at a similar date or time, Jetstar will beat any competitor by 10 per cent**.

Jetstar Chief Executive Officer Bruce Buchanan said the new domestic services would support tourism growth and commercial opportunities for Far North Queensland, bringing an additional 1000 seats into Cairns each week.

“We have been very pleased with sales to date on the new Gold Coast-Cairns service with both international and domestic customers responding to the availability of this new direct link between Queensland’s two largest tourism gateways,” Mr Buchanan said.

“The new Cairns-Gold Coast connection is vital for the enhanced flow of travel for both domestic and international visitors between these iconic tourist destinations within Queensland, who now also have the option to combine the surf beaches of the Gold Coast with access to the Great Barrier Reef and the tropics of Cairns.

“The opportunity this service presents for Cairns for more international visitors will be further enhanced in October 2009, when our future daily trans Tasman service from Auckland* to the Gold Coast being altered to a morning departure from Auckland allowing for connectivity on to this domestic tag service. (*Subject to regulatory approval).

“Coupled with our every day low fares, which will start from $89 on the Gold Coast-Cairns route, we believe this presents a very attractive proposition for travellers, whether they start their journey in New Zealand, Japan, within Australia or beyond for more seamless access to Cairns.”

Jetstar will now base three A320 aircraft in Cairns, with a total of nine major cities now serviced by flights from tropical Australia’s air gateway.

Jetstar now operates internationally from Cairns with daily A330 flights direct to Tokyo, in addition to a daily return Cairns-Darwin-Singapore A320 service.

A total of 52 weekly domestic services from Cairns now directly serve Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Gold Coast, Perth and Darwin.

To celebrate the inaugural flight’s arrival at Cairns Airport, a Jetstar, Tourism Tropical North Queensland and Cairns Airport delegation met passengers arriving on the inaugural flight.

Mr Buchanan said the introduction of the Gold Coast-Cairns service had the strong backing of a joint marketing support package between Jetstar, Cairns Airport, Tourism Queensland, Tourism Tropical North Queensland, Tourism Australia and Gold Coast Airport.

An agreement with Queensland Airports, owner of Gold Coast International Airport, will allow Jetstar to optimize the connections of the domestic and international services through its expanding Gold Coast hub to include Cairns.

He said the Japanese market remained an ongoing priority for the airline, with Jetstar now the largest Qantas Group airline operating between Australia and Japan with a total of 19 weekly services set to grow to 21 weekly services from 29 March 2009 with an additional two daily Gold Coast-Tokyo (Narita)* services.

*Subject to regulatory approval

Flight schedule for Cairns-Gold Coast from 3 February 2009 (Departure times shown)

• Tuesday, Friday, Saturday
• Cairns-Gold Coast - Flight JQ 967, Departs: 06:20 am
• Gold Coast-Cairns - Flight JQ 966, Departs: 10:30 am

Flight schedule for Cairns-Perth from 6 February 2009 (Departure times shown)

• Tuesday, Friday, Sunday
• Cairns-Perth - Flight JQ 978 Departs: 18.10 pm
• Perth-Cairns - Flight JQ 979 Departs: 22.55 pm