DJ, TT domestic increases

[Kain C]

http://www.virginaustralia.com/About.../P_019170.html

Virgin Australia Increases Summer Holiday Flights to Queensland and Tasmania

14 November 2011: The Virgin Australia group of airlines today announced it will be adding significant additional capacity into Tasmania and Queensland for the Summer holiday period.

A total of more than 16,000 additional seats are available for sale now for travel between 12 December 2011 and 31 January 2012, on flights between the cities of Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Launceston, Hobart and Melbourne.

This extra capacity includes special seasonal direct flights between Launceston and Brisbane; operating as six return flights per week from 12 December 2011 to 31 January 2012; significantly reducing travel time between the two cities.

“With Summer holidays on the way, these additional services will give families many more options for their interstate travel plans,” Virgin Australia Group Executive - Alliances, Network and Yield, Merren McArthur said.

“In recent weeks we have scheduled hundreds of additional flights to help support the Australian travel and tourism industry.”

“It is part of our commitment to continue to offer competitively priced fares for Australia’s leisure travellers.”

Further information on Virgin Australia’s flights and fares is available at: http://www.virginaustralia.com/

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/

Tiger Airways going for half throttle as CASA eases flight sector restrictions
November 15, 2011 – 9:22 pm, by Ben Sandilands
Tiger Airways Australian domestic operations have been given approval to lift the number of daily sectors flown from 22 to 32 effective immediately.

The airline will roll out a new timetable soon but said tonight that the extra capacity will used as follows.

- An extra daily Melbourne – Perth flight rotation (from one daily return flight currently to two daily return flights).
- An extra Melbourne – Brisbane service, (from three daily return services currently to up to four daily return services).
- An additional Melbourne – Gold Coast service (from two daily return services currently to up to three daily return services).
- Plus up to two extra daily return Melbourne – Sydney rotations (from five daily return services currently to up to seven daily return services).

It says the changes will be in place in time for the Christmas holiday season.

Before it was grounded as a threat to public safety by CASA in July it was flying around 60 sectors daily. After it was allowed back into the air in August it was initially restricted to 18 sectors a day.

Together with the earlier announcement by Air Australia of its entry onto the Brisbane-Melbourne route from 15 December it looks like domestic fares are going to stay competitive, and go lower for the immediate future.