Darwin to be Jetstar's International Hub

[Greg McDonald]

From News.com.au:

Jetstar will establish an international hub in Darwin, says Northern Territory Chief Minister Paul Henderson.

It follows news on Thursday night that Tiger Airways will axe its services to Darwin from Melbourne and Singapore, with the budget airline blaming high fuel and operating costs.

Mr Henderson sought to soften the blow to Territorians, announcing the government and Jetstar had entered into a five year agreement.

Under this the airline will base seven planes in Darwin.

"The Territory government will provide $5 million to support the establishment of the hub and $3 million to support marketing of routes and destinations," Mr Henderson told reporters.

Jetstar is the first national airline to set up an international base in Darwin and Mr Henderson welcomed the move as "great news for Territory travellers and for our economy".

The new deal is expected to inject $160 million into the territory economy, create more than 570 jobs and open the door to an additional 250,000 tourists.

Jetstar flights to Ho Chi Minh City start on September 1 and, under the agreement, Jetstar will operate new routes to South-East Asia using three aircraft by the end of June 2009.

Four other aircraft will come on line by the end of June 2012.

"The aim of the agreement is to grow the international market and the Darwin hub," Mr Henderson said.

Meanwhile, Tiger announced on Thursday night that its services to Darwin will be suspended from October 26.

Tiger chief operating officer Steve Burns said the costs of flying to Darwin were the highest of all the airports the airline served.

"This is an important point to stress: combined airport and fuel costs in Darwin cost more than any of the 27 airports that the airline serves across Australia and Asia. It is just incompatible for a true low-fare airline to operate to such a high cost destination," he said.

The airline might re-establish services to Darwin "if costs become more reasonable", he said.

Tiger flights booked prior to October 26 will go ahead.

[Rhys Xanthis]

Well done JQ!

Tiger definetly lost that battle!

Lets see what happens with Perth...Tiger have dropped their 2nd daily flight to SIN, JQ to get started on SIN, denpasar, jakarta towards the end of the year...i wonder what the future holds!