Jetstar Asia launching Singapore-China flights, service on December 16, 2009; to increase flights to Manila and Bangkok

Jetstar Asia, the low-cost carrier based in Singapore, has announced that it will launch its first service to mainland China in December 2009.

The four-days-a-week service between Singapore and Haikou, the capital of China’s Hainan Province, will start on December 16, 2009, Jetstar Asia, the Asian subsidiary of Qantas Airways, said in a press release.

Jetstar Asia Flight 3K 817 will takeoff from Singapore at 13.35 hours and land in Haikou at 17.05 hours. In the return direction, Flight 3K 818 will leave Haikou at 17.45 hours and reach Singapore at 21.20 hours.

On the Singapore-Haikou route, the all-inclusive, one-way JetSaver Light web fares start at Jetstar Asia’s website Jetstar.com from Singapore $118.
Apart from launching the Singapore-Haikou service on December 16, 2009, Jetstar Asia says it will raise its current capacity from Singapore by 46% the next 12 months (with the arrival of 3 more Airbus A320 aircraft).

The airline also will increase the number of flights to Manila from 7 flights to 10 flights a week from October 2009, as well as enhance the current 2 flights a day to Bangkok to 3 flights a day from September 2009.

Jetstar Asia will, from December 2009, resume its flights from Singapore to Phuket – a route that the carrier had suspended in March 2008, partly on account of the exorbitant prices of aviation turbine fuel.

Chong Phit Lian, chief executive of Jetstar Asia, explained in the press release that the airline sees China as “a clear focus of future growth” and that Haikou is “a very solid entry into mainland China for Jetstar Asia.”
Jetstar Asia’s planned service to China comes in the wake of a drop of as much as 80% in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Australia in the past 3 months.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there has been a sharp fall in the number of visitors from Asia in general in June 2009, compared with June 2008.

In the press release, Jetstar Asia said that it would take delivery of 3 Airbus A320 aircraft within the next 12 months – resulting in its fleet capacity going up by 46%.

From its regional base in Singapore, Jetstar Asia – which is 49% by Qantas Airways, the flag-carrier airline of Australia – operates services to destinations in Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hawaii (the United States), New Zealand, and Australia.