Japan gets extra Australian options

(courtesy of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide (Japan) KK)

Australia's Jetstar Airways on Thursday launched direct flights between Osaka's Kansai International Airport and Cairns, looking to tap into the Japanese tourism market.

Jetstar will operate four round trips a week to Cairns, which serves as the gateway to the northeast coast of Australia, including the popular tourist town of Port Douglas, the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest.

The airline is ramping up its operations into Japan, where it already has daily services from Tokyo to Cairns and the Gold Coast, as well as regular flights between Kansai International Airport - the key hub for central and western Japan - and the Gold Coast.

It is also looking to take advantage of problems at Japan's national carrier, Japan Airlines, which is in dire financial straits and is planning dramatic cuts in its international services.

To promote the new route, which will be served by its two-class A330-200 fleet, Jetstar staged a one-day sale campaign offering return trips from Osaka to Cairns for just Y1,000 (€7.93).

"Cairns, as the gateway to tropical Australia, holds great appeal for international travellers and our latest growth in flights reaffirms Cairns as one of our most popular destinations on Jetstar's fast-growing Australasian and South-East Asian flying network," Bruce Buchanan, Jetstar's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Jetstar has been flying to Japan for three years and is actively looking to add to its routes between the two countries. Another possibility that a number of airlines have already looked into are winter services between Australia and Japan's most northerly island of Hokkaido, which is famous for its skiing resorts.

Jetstar is not the only airline with expansion plans for the Japanese market as three foreign airlines opened new routes on March 28, with Emirates and Etihad Airways launching routes to the Middle East while Air Macau beginning a service to the former Portuguese enclave on the Chinese coast that has grown into a popular gambling destination for Japanese tourists.

The first direct Air Canada flight between Calgary and Tokyo took off the previous day while Qatar Airways is scheduled to open a new service from Tokyo's Narita Airport in April.

JR