Australia’s low fares airline Jetstar will today start a daily Gold Coast to Tokyo service, adding two weekly services to its existing five-times weekly Gold Coast-Tokyo offering to boost the airline’s services between the Gold Coast and Japan to twice daily.

Jetstar commenced services from the Gold Coast to Tokyo on 18 December 2008. The two additional weekly services to Tokyo to start from today are in addition to Jetstar’s existing daily Gold Coast-Osaka service which commenced on 2 October 2008.

Jetstar Chief Executive Officer Bruce Buchanan said Jetstar was helping to bring a new generation of Japanese travelers to the Gold Coast.

“Our services from Tokyo and Osaka to the Gold Coast, which are both less than six months old, have operated close to capacity since launch,” Mr Buchanan said.

“While the Gold Coast has always been a popular destination for Japanese visitors, our passenger data indicates that up to one in five of our passengers are first-time international flyers or infrequent travelers meaning that Jetstar is bringing tens of thousands of new visitors to Australia.”

Up to 40 per cent of bookings for travel from Tokyo to the Gold Coast now come direct through Jetstar.com or telephone bookings, endorsing Jetstar’s proactive approach to marketing its low fare services in Japan.

“We are supporting our 14 weekly return services between the Gold Coast and Japan with extensive marketing activity, which coupled with our low fares proposition, builds on the awareness of the Gold Coast as the destination, to convert interest into actual holiday bookings,” Mr Buchanan said.

“The value of the yen is also currently in favour of Japanese holiday-makers to Australia, which is helping to drive visitation.”

More than one million people have now flown between Australia and Japan with Jetstar since commencing operations in March 2007.

Jetstar’s growing Japan services from the Gold Coast will be supported by the extension of airline’s existing South East Queensland pilot and crew base to include A330 international and cabin crew pilots.

Jetstar’s every day one-way, all inclusive JetSaver Light fares at Jetstar.com from the Gold Coast to Tokyo start from $379.