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Tag: Pacific Blue View All Tags

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Jetstar Wants to Conquer the Kiwis

February 20, 2009 at 9:21 AM | by amandak | 0 Comments

Obviously it wasn't just a rumor that Qantas low-cost spin-off Jetstar was thinking of crashing into the New Zealand domestic flight market.

Now it's official. Starting from June 10, Jetstar will be making domestic flights between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown, while big bro Qantas will completely pull out of the market.

To kick off their Kiwi entry, Jetstar offered NZ$1 fares for two hours earlier this week; but regular flights will start from NZ$29 ($15). This means more competition for Pacific Blue and Air New Zealand; it looks like Jetstar will work out to be cheaper for flights most of the time, but without any comfortable extras.

Looks like Australia really does want to reach out to the Kiwis, contrary to what Bret and Jemaine think.

Related Stories:
· Jetstar Launches New Zealand Flights For $1 [The Age]
· New Zealand Travel: Jetstar Wants Its Piece of the Pie [Jaunted]
· Jetstar Coverage [Jaunted]

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Island Travel: Budget Airlines Hit Solomon Islands

October 9, 2008 at 11:30 AM | by amandak | 3 Comments

We get excited whenever a low-cost airline launches flights to a new and exotic destination, and the start of Pacific Blue flights from Brisbane to the Solomon Islands sounds like something to jump up and down about.

We admit to knowing little about the Solomon Islands (although we know they sometimes get tsunamis), but anywhere in Melanesia with a thousand islands has got to have something attractive. But we're not so sure that Pacific Blue's new flights are actually cheap: A return flight from Brisbane will cost you A$498 ($347) at first, soon rising to A$758 ($529).

On the other hand, if you fit some very specific criteria and promise to fly on a Tuesday, the national carrier Solomon Airlines will get you to Brisbane and back for A$436. Unfortunately it's only for locals and Aussie tourists, but it's a whole lot cheaper than the "budget" airline.

Related Stories:
· Pacific Blue Launches Services to Solomon Islands [Peanuts]
· Solomon Airlines [Official Site]
· Solomon Islands Tsunami [Jaunted]

[Photo: Graham Crumb]

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New Zealand Travel: Jetstar Wants Its Piece of the Pie

September 29, 2008 at 9:30 AM | by amandak | 0 Comments

Qantas low-cost spin-off Jetstar has caught our attention again. Although we were quite distracted by its online rugby game, Jetstar has been busy elsewhere, starting rumors that they're going to gatecrash New Zealand and start up domestic flights across the country.

Locally-based airlines Air New Zealand and Pacific Blue aren't too keen on the idea. They're pretty sure there's only room for the two of them in the Kiwi domestic market and haven't enjoyed sharing a few routes with Qantas already.

When you stop to think about it, most tourists don't even need to fly around New Zealand anyway: Driving or camping are much more in. But since we still love that virtual rugby from Jetstar, we'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

Related Stories:
· Jetstar Could Enter (NZ) Domestic Market [Stuff.co.nz]
· Sports Travel: Rugby League, Virtual Style [Jaunted]
· Jetstar coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: monkeyc.net]

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Pacific Blue Likes Punctuality (Mostly)

February 8, 2008 at 9:50 AM | by amandak | 0 Comments

We mentioned recently that Air New Zealand was having to cut its prices to compete with the likes of Pacific Blue, child airline of Australia's Virgin Blue. But perhaps the situation for Air NZ is even more dire, because the general manager of Pacific Blue, Adrian Hamilton-Manns, is now working on getting really strict about punctual plane departures.

It's a bit rich, coming from a new airline that had delays over Christmas that stranded some passengers overnight, but now Pacific Blue wants the New Zealand government to establish reporting standards so that the public is aware of how late (or early!) airlines are. Such a system is already in place in Australia, and Pacific Blue now wants to show how good a job they can do.

Unfortunately, the airline's new year had a less-than-fantastic start, and we're sure Hamilton-Manns won't be happy about last week's delay at Melbourne Airport. With a Pacific Blue flight to Christchurch due to depart, a flight attendant suddenly fell ill and the other staff had to convince 13 passengers to get bumped to other flights, so that the crew to passenger ratio was legal. Getting volunteers to disembark took an extra ninety minutes, which will definitely look bad for Pacific Blue's statistics. But we wish them luck, just the same.

Related Stories:
· Pacific Blue Man Pushes Punctuality to the Max [NZ Herald]
· Pacific Blue Has Ways of Making You Disembark [The Age]
· Air New Zealand's Having Ups and Downs [Jaunted]

[Photo: PhillipC]