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Jetstar Australia and New Zealand chief executive David Hall is confident Townsville will be able to support the low-cost carrier’s new service to Bali which takes off on Wednesday night.
The inaugural Townsville-Bali flight, JQ102, is scheduled to depart at 2255 local time on Wednesday and arrive in Bali at 0130 the following day. The reciprocal JQ101 has a departure time from Bali of 0230 and an arrival time at Townsville of 0915.
More than 10,000 tickets have been sold since the three times weekly flights with Airbus A320s were launched in April, Jetstar said in a statement.
Jetstar Australia and New Zealand chief executive David Hall said the nonstop flights to Bali meant Townsville residents would no longer have to head to the popular tourist destination via Brisbane or Sydney.
“We know Bali is one of the most popular holiday spots in Asia and we’re delighted to bring a direct low fares link to the people of Townsville,” Hall said on Wednesday.
“As the largest city in North Queensland with a population close to 200,000, we’re confident Townsville will continue to support our Bali services and ensure they’re sustainable year-round.”
Townsville Airport received the go-ahead to again offer international flights in February after an “in-principle agreement of the National Passenger Processing Committee to facilitate international services” at the airport.
The airport has had international flights in the past, most recently with the now defunct Strategic Airlines flying to Bali.
Chuck
says:For this to succeed, further international services from Townsville are needed – both to create critical mass and to engender confidence in longevity. These then enable the airport support services – Duty Free., Money-Exchange etc that facilitate success.
NZ and Singapore services would provide that network of routes, and increase the pool of passengers to further feed services into and out off TSV.
Given the red-eye timing of Jetstar’s Bali service, back-of-the-clock sectors to NZ and Sing could provide increased fleet utilisation for a number of carriers.