Air Asia announces DRW-DPS

[markis10]

Things are hotting up in DRW, lets see what lasts when the wet hits!

New Bali service ready for take-off
NIGEL ADLAM

July 19th, 2010


A NEW air service between Darwin and Bali is to start in October.

It will operate four times a week using 180-seat Airbus A320 planes.

Malaysia-based AirAsia will operate in competition to Jetstar, which has had a monopoly on the route since Garuda pulled out last year.

The service will be run by AirAsia's Indonesian arm.

Territorians will be able to fly to Kuala Lumpur via Bali and access the airline's network of cheap services including flights to Europe.

Return fares to London can be as little as $500.

Jetstar said yesterday it was not surprised that AirAsia was starting up a Darwin-Bali service.

The Australian airline operates a daily service to Denpasar and has connections from Bali to Singapore.


New Bali service ready for take-off | Northern Territory News | Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia | ntnews.com.au

 

[k_sheep]

Woo means more D7 sales coming up

 

[oz_mark]

Woo means more D7 sales coming up

...or at least QZ in this case.

 

[moa999]

Who owns the 51% in QZ.

SYD-DRW-DPS-KUL-STN
is certainly a long way to London!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

Wonder if Air Asia have got any subsidy from the NT Govt for this like TT did.

I doubt that two LCCs can permanently sustain services to DPS. Given that QZ & JQ both operate A320's, the fuel costs would be pretty much the same however the only area they could save on would be crew costs.

If JQ close the DRW crew base (would not affect JQ flights at all) & start using SIN based F/A's that would keep the cost closer to what QZ pay their crew but with pilots there would be a greater gap between say a JQ skipper vs a QZ one.

LCC's in DRW have seen an end to full service airlines with TR (Tiger SIN) forcing BI to pull out of DRW after 24 years service. Ditto when JQ commenced flights to DPS, GA pulled out after nearly 30 years of service.

Royal Brunei to pull Darwin services - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Garuda pulls pin on Darwin after 30 years | Northern Territory News | Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia | ntnews.com.au

QF handle JQ's engineering in DRW so whether QZ would utilise QF also who knows. Might be a conflict of interest to do so never mind aiding and abetting the competition.

Time will tell.