Gold Coast airport Booming.

[Jarden S]

Gold Coast continues to grow from strength to strength, with nearly 1 million increase in annual passengers in 2 years around 25%. Jetstar has announced new flights to Perth and Queenstown NZ and will increase the Cairns service to daily to come next year. Meanwhile Virgin blue has quietly increased its commitment to the city, they don't seem to go for all the press releases and fanfare that Jetstar do when announcing new or increased flights. After recently viewing the online flight info for OOL I was surprised that DJ has more daily flights than JQ now.
Here is a summary of Friday's flights for Tomorrow:

Arrivals Total: 55
DJ 24 consists of: 14 SYD 6 MEL 1 NTL 1 ADL 1 CBR 1 TSV
JQ 23 consists of: 10 SYD 7 MEL 2 NTL 1 ADL 1 CNS 2 INTL
TT 5 consists of: 1 SYD 3 MEL 1 ADL

Departures Total: 55
DJ 24 consists of: 14 SYD 6 MEL 1 NTL 1 ADL 1 CBR 1 TSV
JQ 23 consists of: 11 SYD 6 MEL 1 NTL 1 ADL 1 CNS 2 INTL
TT 5 consists of: 1 SYD 3 MEL 1 ADL

Jetstar has dropped a few SYD and MEL flights as I'm sure they were the biggest operator in the past at Gold Coast. Will be interesting to see next year where DJ and JQ stand up or who will be in front. Will DJ compete to PER or open its own new route maybe Tas could be a possibility.

[Brock Little]

In addition to the INTL flights, Pacific Blue are on AKL-OOL daily. The frequency of JQ and DJ flights can vary; JQ's services to CHC and NRT don't operate on the Friday.

Jetstar could have dropped some MEL and SYD flights because they now frequently use the A321 on these routes.

DJ...they could start OOL-PER services (they used to operate on them), and JQ on OOL-LST/HBA sounds more likely in the Tasmanian region; Mr. Buchanan didn't rule out that services from Tasmania to OOL will begin in the future. JQ could also start OOL-AYQ for connection purposes of the Japanese tourists.

In terms of international flights, a OOL-DPS and OOL-SIN service should start to happen soon...OOL-HNL would also be great.

Nonetheless, I hope that the amount of services to Gold Coast Airport will only increase!

[Stefan Perkas]

They loose 1 flight OOL-ADL with Tiger, which ceases on November 9. But then gain OOL-AVV around the sanme time.

[Brock Little]

Doesn't it cease on the 10th? And AVV starts on the same date as ADL finishes.

It cant operate on the same day Avalon starts because they would then be an aircraft short, so it ends on the 9th, who cares anyway..

Full Tiger schedule after November 9th is Sydney-2, Melb-3, Avalon-2. Tiger does cut and chop flying plans quite quickly, so its probably different now especially mid week.

OOL-HNL...is that some sort of joke, stop dreaming mate!

[Brock Little]

Originally Posted by Lukas M

It cant operate on the same day Avalon starts because they would then be an aircraft short, so it ends on the 9th, who cares anyway..

Full Tiger schedule after November 9th is Sydney-2, Melb-3, Avalon-2. Tiger does cut and chop flying plans quite quickly, so its probably different now especially mid week.

OOL-HNL...is that some sort of joke, stop dreaming mate!

Good old wikipedia...thanks for clearing that up Lukas.

And I was talking into the far-flung future when I said OOL-HNL...they are both places that have great beaches, surf, etc. The Gold Coast will be very big in the next 10/20 years; it's part of the fastest growing region in Australia.

[Jarden S]

Even Jetstar may do a direct OOL-DRW which would connect with the international flights from there. Strategic could also start OOL-DPS with an A320. There is also talk of Qantas mainline returing to OOL they could substitute 2 daily MEL and SYD rotations from JQ. QantasLink could compete with DJ from CBR with the Q400 as well they have ordered 7 more.

[Ryan K]

Originally Posted by Brock Little

DJ...they could start OOL-PER services (they used to operate on them), and JQ on OOL-LST/HBA sounds more likely in the Tasmanian region; Mr. Buchanan didn't rule out that services from Tasmania to OOL will begin in the future. JQ could also start OOL-AYQ for connection purposes of the Japanese tourists.

I can remember as a kid flying OOL-LST non-stop on Ansett and Australian Airlines. This was a popular flight for families on school holidays, it would be great to see an OOL to LST or HBA route re-established.

[Jarden S]

So LST has lost a lot of direct flights ADL and OOL.

[Jarden S]

If you have a look at CBR flights. Qantas is still dominant with 28 daily flights to Virgin blue's 18 and has 6 aircraft overnighting to DJ's 3. Although Virgin serves more routes to 7 destinations to Qantas 6. The SYD-CBR route Qantas has 12 dailies to Virgin's 8 dailies.