13/10/01
Regional Development and the Kimberley Minister Tom Stephens today welcomed advice that Qantas is developing plans for the possible introduction of two additional B737 aircraft for intrastate services in Western Australia.
In response to representations that I made this week to Qantas Chief Executive Officer Geoff Dixon, Qantas advises that introduction is being considered from January 2002. This is in addition to the two BAe146 aircraft that are being transferred to Western Australia effective October 28.
Qantas indicates that the timing of the introduction of the B737 on the intrastate routes will depend on their opportunity to obtain and introduce additional narrow body jet capacity into their domestic network, as well as the commercial viability of these services.
The introduction of the B737 will enable BAe146 aircraft to be released to provide much needed additional capacity into Broome, in particular, as part of a comprehensive intrastate Qantas schedule in WA.
Qantas is aware that details of this will need to be finalised by November in order to assure Domestic and International wholesalers that sufficient capacity will be added so that they commit to their tour programs and brochure releases.
In response to immediate demands for Broome, Qantas advises that they will further increase capacity on selected peak days with supplementary services.
- effective October 28, QantasLink will increase its scheduled services from 7 services / week to 16 services / week;
- effective week commencing October 15 to January 2002, QantasLink will plan to operate three to four supplementary services per week; and these services will be available for sale as crewing for these flights are confirmed; with three extra scheduled services in the reservation system for October and selling;
- special discounted fares will be available on the additional services, with a $360 return Perth/Broome fare available through to the end of October to stimulate immediate bookings;
- QantasLink has undertaken to embark on a range of promotional and advertising activity in the Perth market.
The important link from Broome to Darwin via Kununurra will continue to be operated by Airnorth and from Wednesday October 17, this schedule and fares will be hosted on the Qantas reservation system. The Airnorth services will connect to/from QantasLink Broome services, enabling direct connections to Kununurra and Darwin.
Qantas has given assurances that they will continue to provide a range of discount airfares to stimulate traffic to leisure destinations. As this new capacity comes on line, Qantas indicates they will be able to allocate a greater number of seats with a wide range of discount fares.
These announcements will be welcome news, especially to Kimberley residents and the local regional tourism industry. However, more work still needs to be done to grow capacity as quickly as possible, especially the much needed discount seats required to sustain the region's important tourism industry.
Media contact: Julie Cole 9213 6500
