Jetstar announces Sunshine Coast-Adelaide flights

Jetstar is to begin three times weekly direct flights between Adelaide and the Sunshine Coast from September 30, the Qantas-owned low-cost carrier announced on Friday.

The new flights will operate with 180-seat Airbus A320s on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, and add a further 56,000 seats a year into the Sunshine Coast market.

“Our strategy has been to diversify our market base as widely as possible, and the start of direct Jetstar services from Adelaide complements significant growth in direct services from Sydney, Melbourne and across the Tasman,” Visit Sunshine Coast acting CEO Simon Latchford said in a statement.

Comments (14)

deano

May 13, 2016 at 12:21 pm

This has been a long time coming, but me thinks that an A320 will be hard to fill
A Qantas 717 or a Virgin ERJ would have been far better suited to this rout
Perhaps someone could have a serious look at Canberra – Maroochy hello Jetgo….

deano

May 13, 2016 at 1:00 pm

By the way
56,000 extra seats is not quite correct
It is 28,000 each way

inherentchoice

May 13, 2016 at 1:15 pm

Jetstar’s $69 sale fares on this route are $50 more for a return flight than if you flew BNE-ADL with the current Tigerair sale.

deano

May 13, 2016 at 5:15 pm

Yea but who wants to go to Brisbane
What swim in a bay lol

Harrison Grohn

May 13, 2016 at 6:34 pm

Its awesome to see a new destination at sunshine coast!!!!!

Chris

May 13, 2016 at 6:37 pm

Inherentchoice with the abysmal traffic holdups on the Bruce Hwy there is no guarantee you will connect with your flight unless you sleep in Brisbane overnight. We have missed flights when we left plenty of time.

Marc

May 14, 2016 at 12:34 am

Connecting two places with nothing to do. I’ll give it 6 months.

deano

May 14, 2016 at 11:36 am

Sunshine Coast Airport is so very underrated
Population is now nearing 300,000 (not far short of Canberra) and for some reason, only Melbourne and Sydney tourists seem to be the ones being catered for
Hundreds and hundreds of locals make the trip to Brisbane daily to fly to other destinations
The coast has been crying out for years for flights going north, Canberra, Newcastle, Tasmania and to connect with FIFO flights from Perth

When will the likes of Jetgo, Rex or even an Aussie version of Propstar look at the Sunny Coast as a market
Jetgo should have a go at
Canberra direct
Newcastle direct, or even string together the two and perhaps on to Hobart, selling sector seats along the way
Jetstar or Jetgo to Perth or via Alice Springs
Jetgo or Rex to Gladstone, Rockhampton, Townsville and Cairns, again, picking up sector seats along the way
There is so much opportunity here for smaller sized airlines to open new routs by busting hubs

GBRGB

May 14, 2016 at 12:27 pm

Good to see, let’s hope more regional centres get joined by direct flights so we can all avoid the 2 stop via Brisbane or Sydney to get anywhere in this country. The govt should open up the skies to all airlines if the Australian carriers don’t offer services, use it or lose it.

Corey Dark

May 15, 2016 at 6:22 pm

It’s good news to be getting more flights but it’s the wrong way! We who live on the Sunshine Coast want to travel North to Cairns etc.

Qantas need to add Boing 717 flight to Canberra, Townsville and Mackay along with 737s to SYD, MEL, PER and SIN and maybe an A330 or 787 to Dubai once the new runway is built. Also run Q400 or buy some C series or E175s to fly to Gladstone and Rockhampton etc

Jetstar should have flights to Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, FIJI, Vanuatu, Bali along with the current SYD and MEL and maybe a 787 to Singapore but that rout is better suited to Qantas.

Virgin Australia don’t seem to care about growth here on the Sunshine Coast so I’m not even going to bother with them.

Also I’d like to put a suggestion forward to readers. With the new runway being built (runway 13/31) 2450m x 45m (Code E) be lengthened from the South East to make it a 2700m+ runway and have a parallel taxi way? All they would have to do is resume house and bull doze them etc. Also they could build a new terminal for 4-5 787/777 aircraft and 8-10 737 aircraft at one time all with air bridges. Also they could build ramps for 747-8 aircraft or additional aircraft for example 777s for when Brisbane is closed due to weather. From my understand there is the room to build it. Also note that the Sc airport is an alternative for the RAAF Base Amberley if it was closed for some reason.

deano

May 16, 2016 at 10:38 am

All joking aside
I and many locals dislike the trek to Brisbane to fly onward to anywhere else than Sydney or Melbourne
34 seaters like what Rex and Jetgo operate would do quite well hub-busting and would get a lot of local support
The Sunny Coast is not just about tourists, plenty of locals travel also
Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Canberra, Newcastle, Hobart, Adelaide and Perth are all realistic destinations that could be well patronized

It also surprises me that the Gold Coast supports many of these destinations with 180 seat jets, many on a daily basis, yet for some reason, the Sunshine Coast seems to be overlooked even with a 34 seat aircraft

Rex, Jetgo HELLO….

Marc

May 16, 2016 at 6:39 pm

@deano
GC is closing in on 700,000 people, and rising fast, and also serves northern NSW approx another 100,000, so there’s almost 3 times the population base than SC in a smaller area.

deano

May 17, 2016 at 9:42 am

Marc

My point exactly
700k Gold Coast 90km Brisbane Airport
300K Sunshine Coast 101km Brisbane Airport

Domestic
Gold Coast
Syd
Mel + Avv
Adl
Per
Ntl
Cbr
Cns
Tsv
Rok
Sunshine Coast
Syd
Mel
Adl
International
Gold Coast
Auckland
Queenstown
Christchurch
KL’
Tokyo
Nandi
Wuhan
Sunshine Coast
Auckland seasonal

We have 1/2 the population of the Gold Coast
We are twice the travel time to Brisbane Airport (due traffic, not distance)
We have 1/5 the flights and seats
We have stuff all destinations

Again
We have no choice other than to make the trip to Brisbane or hub through Sydney or Melbourne
I fully understand why Qantas, Virgin, Jetstar won’t add more destinations as they pick up the passengers from Brisbane anyway
But why the likes of Rex of Jetgo won’t have a go from here seems to be quite a mystery
Rex goes head to head with Qantas and virgin on marginal routs with 50% load factors
Jetgo are looking for hub-busting routs like Gold Coast to Rocky and Townsville and seem to be doing ok

Here, like the Gold Coast there are a lot of retirees and family’s that travel and not all go to Sydney and Melbourne…..

Open invitation to Jetgo or Rex
CNS-ROK-MCY-NTL-CBR-HBA and return, a one day rotation
How that for a hub buster, picking up sector pax along the way

jarden

May 20, 2016 at 10:14 am

Actually this is not a new route its a resumption. Jetstar operated it when they started out in 2005-06 using the 717s. I still have the old route map somewhere showing it.

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