Jetstar Asia focuses on growing frequencies

Jetstar Asia's near-term growth will focus on increasing frequencies on certain routes within its existing network. The budget carrier's CE Bara Pasupathi lists its services to Darwin, Okinawa and Denpasar as routes where it will soon add more frequencies. "Where we are growing is new markets that have gone in with around three or four [weekly] frequencies and then we add up the numbers," he says. The carrier has already announced that Singapore-Darwin will increase from four to five times weekly from 28 October, while Singapore-Okinawa will increase from three to four times weekly on its service from 15 November. Jetstar Asia will also add around six to seven additional flights on its Singapore-Denpasar route for the upcoming northern winter season, which Pasupathi says reflects demand is driven by European travellers connecting onto its network from other carriers. He explains that the carrier is seeing stronger demand from its 32 interline and codeshare partners, as well as increasing feed from 49% shareholder Qantas. "We are seeing more transfer traffic at Singapore that comes from Europe, across the Asia-Pacific region... 20% of our total traffic is from transfer," he said. "It has also helped that Qantas' shifting of hubs from Dubai to Singapore has enabled us to carry more of their passengers on our own network."<br/>