Jetstar moves upmarket

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This was published 13 years ago

Jetstar moves upmarket

The low-cost carrier is offering more perks on its Singapore route, writes Clive Dorman.

Illustration: Robin Cowcher

Illustration: Robin Cowcher

Jetstar has announced a series of new deals that will enable it to be less like a low-cost carrier and more like its parent, Qantas, on services to and from Singapore in a widening of ties with the global oneworld alliance.

Passengers on oneworld carriers flying into Singapore, such as Royal Jordanian, British Airways and Finnair, will be able to connect seamlessly with Jetstar services carrying code-shared Qantas flight numbers. They will even be entitled to free meals, automatic baggage transfer and a Qantas-like baggage allowance - even when passengers around them hold regular Jetstar tickets and have to pay for extras. The only perk they'd expect on their home carriers not available for free on Jetstar is in-flight entertainment.

The deal applies to all oneworld fare types, such as "Explorer" round-the-world tickets, sold through the Qantas and oneworld sales systems.

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Jetstar doesn't see any problem with a further blurring of the lines between low-cost flying and traditional full service.

"It's another building block on the broader proposition of the Singaporean hub," Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway says. "We have an agreed product position which will have a meal service and a refreshment service, connectivity for bags and baggage limits.

"We've had code-share arrangements in place since 2004 with Qantas out of Australia. This is a commonsense next step."

As part of the strengthening of its Singapore hub, Jetstar recently began flying a widebody A330 from Melbourne to the city daily and will soon do so from Auckland. Both services connect with onward Jetstar Asia flights, as well as Qantas flights to Europe.

One of Jetstar Asia's new priorities is connecting Singapore and Australia with China. Jetstar has hinted that direct Australia-China flights are a possibility later this year.

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Westaway says Jetstar Asia is now Singapore's biggest low-cost airline but its chief competitor in Singapore and Australia, Tiger Airways, is happy that its rival is moving further away from the pure low-cost airline model.

Tiger's group chief executive, Tony Davis, says the Australian operation was profitable in the last quarter of 2010. "Can Tiger carve itself a niche in the Australian market? I can understand the scepticism but we're in our fourth year of operation now," he says.

"I think we have to put that particular myth to bed. Australia has polarised into two models. There's clearly a low-cost, leisure-oriented model that people like Tiger are successfully operating. Then there's the full-service premium product some of our competitors have decided is where they want to operate.

"There was a lot of speculation about whether a company that sold very cheap tickets could make money in Australia and we're very confident we can. We think we've stopped the start-up phase and we're now in the growth phase. And we've stayed pure to our model."

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