SYDNEY: Qantas Airways’s budget arm Jetstar is flying 90 percent of its pre-pandemic domestic schedule in March amid a rebound in demand as state borders have reopened in Australia, Jetstar’s chief govt mentioned on Wednesday.
“We are feeling certainly more positive than we’ve got in 12 months,” Jetstar Group CEO Gareth Evans mentioned at a CAPA Centre for Aviation event.
The low-cost airline in December had hoped to reach more than 110 percent of its pre-pandemic domestic schedule by this month, however, that was downgraded because of state border closures amid COVID-19 case clusters.
Qantas has been boosting capacity at Jetstar more quickly than at its main model because business travel is taking longer to recover to pre-pandemic levels than leisure travel.
Qantas expects its total domestic capacity, including Jetstar, to reach 80 percent of regular in the fourth quarter, which ends on Jun 30.
Qantas can be leveraging Jetstar’s lower-cost offering in competition with Regional Categorical, a new entrant on the Sydney-Melbourne route.
Jetstar has been offering fares as low as A$29 (US$22.29) every way to undercut Rex’s lowest fares on the route by A$20.
“We’re absolutely going to be watching them very carefully as we do with all rivals,” Evans mentioned. “We’re always going to have the lowest fares in the market.”
Australia’s international borders are largely closed, meaning domestic travel is the only option for most residents.
Qantas doesn’t expect the widespread international travel to return till at least Oct 31, in line with the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination program.
Jetstar has delayed the delivery of its first Airbus SE A321neoLRs, aimed at the international market, to 2022 or 2023, Evans mentioned. Before the pandemic hit, it had expected the first of 18 of the planes to arrive in August 2020.
Jetstar plans to resume using its Boeing 787s within the international market as soon as borders reopen, Evans mentioned.
