Airports across Australia have welcomed the news that Jetstar, the Melbourne-headquartered low-cost carrier (LCC) is set to operate more domestic flights in February and March in 2021 than in any previous year. Travel demand for the airline’s low fares are already exceeding pre-COVID levels.
Jetstar will operate more than 850 return weekly flights across 55 routes by March 2021 – this represents more than 110% of Jetstar’s pre-COVID schedule (compared to March 2019). The additional services will be operated by the airline’s Airbus A320s that would normally be used to serve overseas links to destinations such as Bali and Singapore.
According to Jetstar Group CEO Gareth Evans, “Travel demand to popular holiday spots is bouncing back in the lead up to the summer holidays.
“Australians are globally renowned for loving travel and as we approach 2021, demand for our low fares services is stronger than ever.”
Almost 90% of Australians plan to travel domestically in 2021, according to a recently conducted survey carried out by Jetstar. More than half of the 1,500 people surveyed also said they plan to visit destinations they’ve never been to before and, in good news for businesses reliant on tourism, are more likely to spend on domestic travel than they would have been in previous years. The survey also revealed that Hobart and Melbourne saw the biggest rise in popularity as destinations, with Cairns and the Gold Coast rising even further in appeal to families with international travel off the cards for some time to come.
With international borders remaining closed, Evans conceded that there is “a lot of repair work to do given the huge toll the COVID crisis took on airlines.”
However, he concluded: “The flexibility we have across our fleet means we can offer these extra services, help boost tourism and the local economies of the communities we fly to and also get more of our people back in the air.”
