Gold Coast airport Booming.

[Jarden S]

Gold Coast continues to grow from strength to strength, with nearly 1 million increase in annual passengers in 2 years around 25%. Jetstar has announced new flights to Perth and Queenstown NZ and will increase the Cairns service to daily to come next year. Meanwhile Virgin blue has quietly increased its commitment to the city, they don't seem to go for all the press releases and fanfare that Jetstar do when announcing new or increased flights. After recently viewing the online flight info for OOL I was surprised that DJ has more daily flights than JQ now.
Here is a summary of Friday's flights for Tomorrow:

Arrivals Total: 55
DJ 24 consists of: 14 SYD 6 MEL 1 NTL 1 ADL 1 CBR 1 TSV
JQ 23 consists of: 10 SYD 7 MEL 2 NTL 1 ADL 1 CNS 2 INTL
TT 5 consists of: 1 SYD 3 MEL 1 ADL

Departures Total: 55
DJ 24 consists of: 14 SYD 6 MEL 1 NTL 1 ADL 1 CBR 1 TSV
JQ 23 consists of: 11 SYD 6 MEL 1 NTL 1 ADL 1 CNS 2 INTL
TT 5 consists of: 1 SYD 3 MEL 1 ADL

Jetstar has dropped a few SYD and MEL flights as I'm sure they were the biggest operator in the past at Gold Coast. Will be interesting to see next year where DJ and JQ stand up or who will be in front. Will DJ compete to PER or open its own new route maybe Tas could be a possibility.

[Brock Little]

In addition to the INTL flights, Pacific Blue are on AKL-OOL daily. The frequency of JQ and DJ flights can vary; JQ's services to CHC and NRT don't operate on the Friday.

Jetstar could have dropped some MEL and SYD flights because they now frequently use the A321 on these routes.

DJ...they could start OOL-PER services (they used to operate on them), and JQ on OOL-LST/HBA sounds more likely in the Tasmanian region; Mr. Buchanan didn't rule out that services from Tasmania to OOL will begin in the future. JQ could also start OOL-AYQ for connection purposes of the Japanese tourists.

In terms of international flights, a OOL-DPS and OOL-SIN service should start to happen soon...OOL-HNL would also be great.

Nonetheless, I hope that the amount of services to Gold Coast Airport will only increase! :)

[Stefan Perkas]

They loose 1 flight OOL-ADL with Tiger, which ceases on November 9. But then gain OOL-AVV around the sanme time.

[Brock Little]

Doesn't it cease on the 10th? And AVV starts on the same date as ADL finishes.

[Lukas M]

It cant operate on the same day Avalon starts because they would then be an aircraft short, so it ends on the 9th, who cares anyway..

Full Tiger schedule after November 9th is Sydney-2, Melb-3, Avalon-2. Tiger does cut and chop flying plans quite quickly, so its probably different now especially mid week.

OOL-HNL...is that some sort of joke, stop dreaming mate!

[Brock Little]

It cant operate on the same day Avalon starts because they would then be an aircraft short, so it ends on the 9th, who cares anyway..

Full Tiger schedule after November 9th is Sydney-2, Melb-3, Avalon-2. Tiger does cut and chop flying plans quite quickly, so its probably different now especially mid week.

OOL-HNL...is that some sort of joke, stop dreaming mate!

Good old wikipedia...thanks for clearing that up Lukas.

And I was talking into the far-flung future when I said OOL-HNL...they are both places that have great beaches, surf, etc. The Gold Coast will be very big in the next 10/20 years; it's part of the fastest growing region in Australia.

[Jarden S]

Even Jetstar may do a direct OOL-DRW which would connect with the international flights from there. Strategic could also start OOL-DPS with an A320. There is also talk of Qantas mainline returing to OOL they could substitute 2 daily MEL and SYD rotations from JQ. QantasLink could compete with DJ from CBR with the Q400 as well they have ordered 7 more.

[Ryan K]

DJ...they could start OOL-PER services (they used to operate on them), and JQ on OOL-LST/HBA sounds more likely in the Tasmanian region; Mr. Buchanan didn't rule out that services from Tasmania to OOL will begin in the future. JQ could also start OOL-AYQ for connection purposes of the Japanese tourists.

I can remember as a kid flying OOL-LST non-stop on Ansett and Australian Airlines. This was a popular flight for families on school holidays, it would be great to see an OOL to LST or HBA route re-established.

[Jarden S]

So LST has lost a lot of direct flights ADL and OOL.

[Jarden S]

If you have a look at CBR flights. Qantas is still dominant with 28 daily flights to Virgin blue's 18 and has 6 aircraft overnighting to DJ's 3. Although Virgin serves more routes to 7 destinations to Qantas 6. The SYD-CBR route Qantas has 12 dailies to Virgin's 8 dailies.

[Brock Little]

What aircraft does QF utilise on the SYD-CBR route?

[Jarden S]

Qf uses a mixture of 737's and Q400's.

[Ryan K]

So LST has lost a lot of direct flights ADL and OOL.

But it has picked up a daily direct flight to BNE - twice daily this summer. The direct flights to ADL were only once a week back in the 1990's when QF's Southern Airlines flew 146's into LST. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I beleive these 146's needed to go to ADL once a week for maintenence or something similar as this is where a lot of work was done on BAe 146's. I highly doubt the ADL flights were profitable, but they had to fly the aircraft there regardless, so they might as well have had a few paying passengers on board.

[Jarden S]

Now all Tasmanians who need to get to SA will most likely transfer through MEL.

[Ryan K]

In the past few years, JQ, DJ and TT have all pulled out of the ADL-HBA route.

[Jarden S]

Has Qantas Link got some spare 717s as they may be a better fit for an ADL-HBA service. The A320/737 has too many seats to fill for many routes good for the peak months but not for the low season.. Also could be said for BNE-HBA to a 717 as well.

[Ryan K]

DJ could use a E190 on ADL-HBA perhaps? Nothing seems to work on this route though. Here's hoping for a OOL-HBA service in the near future.

[Brock Little]

As am I. HBA or LST would do just fine for me. Maybe we could have both? ;) JQ could serve LST and DJ could serve HBA to increase its battle with Qantas in the Hobart area. Eh, I'll be happy with either one. :D

[Stefan Perkas]

DJ could use a E190 on ADL-HBA perhaps? Nothing seems to work on this route though. Here's hoping for a OOL-HBA service in the near future.

DJ tried the E190's on the ADL-HBA run, and failed.

[Ryan K]

As am I. HBA or LST would do just fine for me. Maybe we could have both? ;) JQ could serve LST and DJ could serve HBA to increase its battle with Qantas in the Hobart area. Eh, I'll be happy with either one. :D

Would JQ consider an OOL-LST service when they already have a daily BNE-LST flight?

[Will H]

In regards to SYD-OOL I had a look at random days and JQ can go up to 11x daily, with 4x A321 flights, so JQ's capacity begins to match DJ's.

With DJ's service there are a few ways of looking at it.
-DJ is limited with the 73G/8 and can't use an A321-sized a/c even if they wanted to
-DJ wants to maintain frequency as they are the most upscale and corporate carrier since QF mainline pulled out

It will be interesting to watch what happens to OOL if QF mainline goes back in, as presumably it will be around the same time as DJ's new front domestic product.

[Jarden S]

When Qantas gets more new 737s next year from Boeing maybe they will return to OOL with them. Does anyone know how well DJ's HBA-CBR daily service is going. I am suprised they can make that route work and not a HBA-ADL one, especially when ADL is 3 times the population of CBR.

[Kent Broadhead]

When Qantas gets more new 737s next year from Boeing maybe they will return to OOL with them. Does anyone know how well DJ's HBA-CBR daily service is going. I am suprised they can make that route work and not a HBA-ADL one, especially when ADL is 3 times the population of CBR. Does the public sector in ADL provide many services to HBA/TAS? I think your answer is there.....

[Ryan K]

When Qantas gets more new 737s next year from Boeing maybe they will return to OOL with them.

Is there any truth to some rumours in previous threads that QF mainline would consider a return to LST?

[Brock Little]

Would JQ consider an OOL-LST service when they already have a daily BNE-LST flight?

Yeah - they didn't rule out that OOL-LST services would begin in the future. Would make a great connection to inbound Japanese pax.

[Jarden S]

So DJ will be getting a fair bit of Government workers on their HBA-CBR flights. That figures for it to be doing well for them.

[Paul f.]

Yeah - they didn't rule out that OOL-LST services would begin in the future. Would make a great connection to inbound Japanese pax.Didnt think there would be a great demand for Japanese pax to LST from OOL.

[Ryan K]

As a single destination maybe not. But as an entry point for the whole of Tasmania, LST is quicker and cheaper to get to, as well as a more central point in the state.

[Justin L]

If I recall correctly from older posts, aren't the JQ BNE-LST flights subsidised by government?

If that is the case, then from a viability standpoint, wouldn't OOL-LST flights etc. also need similar support to be viable?

[Kain C]

Wow, didn't expect to find so much on LST and HBA in the OOL thread!

Given that the Gold Coast Suns play Hawthorn at Aurora Stadium in Launceston on June 18, I'd say OOL-LST will be a definite next year (even if it is just the one charter!).

As for HBA-ADL, I suspect that it has always done a bit better than people give credit for. DJ started it in Nov 2004, and it wasn't until May 2009 that they dropped it. TT operated the route from early 2009 until July 2010. Interestingly, if DJ thought that the route was so unviable in 2009 with the introduction of TT, why wouldn't they have dropped it at the logical time at the end of March 2009 when the NS09 schedules started? It was only in mid April when there was a network wide review, and four ADL-MEL were cut that meant that there was no aircraft available to operate the ADL-HBA-ADL service. Whilst not as high yielding as HBA-CBR, there are a few companies with headquarters in both HBA and ADL, so there would be demand for one E90 sized aircraft daily you would think. Whether or not the rest of the network could be adjusted so as to make this viable is another question. If DJ were to put those four ADL-MEL back on, then you would think it would be more viable to operate the ADL-HBA than have the aircraft sitting on the ground at ADL doing nothing.

In a similar vein, given there will be new services from OOL to CNS and PER in the new year, the viability of OOL-LST/HBA opens up given there will be an aircraft available. Next year there could potentially be 4 TAS-QLD monopolies; HBA-BNE with DJ, HBA-OOL with JQ, LST-OOL with JQ and LST-BNE with JQ!!!

[Brock Little]

Apparently JQ has a surplus of aircraft at the moment.

[Jarden S]

GOLD Coast Airport has been named the 2010 Major Airport of the Year by the Australian Airports Association following 12 months of solid growth in passenger numbers and services offered.

Chief operating officer Paul Donovan accepted the award at a ceremony in Adelaide and said the accolade showed the ongoing growth of the Gold Coast and its airport.

Mr Donovan said passenger numbers at the Gold Coast continued to grow.
''We have enjoyed considerable success in recent years in terms of continual passenger growth and during the 2009/2010 financial year Gold Coast Airport welcomed a record of just over five million passengers,'' he said.

''This is an achievement in itself considering the terminal was a construction site for the majority of the year, as we put the finishing touches to our $100 million terminal redevelopment.''

The services at the airport also continue to grow, with direct domestic flights to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Newcastle, Cairns, Townsville and Mount Isa by Jetstar, Virgin Blue, Tiger Airways and Airnorth.

International routes have also increased with services to Auckland, Christchurch, Tokyo, Osaka and Kuala Lumpur provided by Jetstar, Pacific Blue, AirAsia X and Air New Zealand.

Mr Donovan thanked all airport staff for their hard work throughout the year
http://www.goldcoast.com.au/article/2010/10/28/266595_tourism-news.html

[Jarden S]

A very valid comment Liam. They seem to have a spare Q400 up here in CNS on most days doing nothing could easily send it down to OOL to do some flights. Also do an OOL-CBR-OOL run in the downtime.

[Paul McFarlane]

GOLD Coast Airport has been named the 2010 Major Airport of the Year by the Australian Airports Association

Not to hijack the thread for a moment, but I'd thought I'd just mention that our airport (Mount Gambier) won the 2010 Rural Airport of the Year. From what I can remember it was a great night in Adelaide!

OK, as you were.

[Jarden S]

EXTRA Jetstar flights to the Gold Coast and Brisbane could bring another 100,000 passengers a year to Cairns airport.

The Gold Coast to Cairns service has gone from three flights a week to daily and a fourth daily Brisbane to Cairns service has been added. The new flights started yesterday.

The Gold Coast flights depart daily at 9.05am, arriving in Cairns at 11.35am.

The new Brisbane to Cairns flights leave at 10.35am daily and touchdown in Cairns at 12.55pm.

Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive officer Rob Giason said the expansion of services would bring more Japanese and Chinese tourists to Cairns.

"In addition to the domestic market opportunities, the Gold Coast service will provide greater access to the Cairns region for Japanese visitors arriving via the Gold Coast," he said.

"The additional services from Brisbane will assist Chinese visitors arriving direct from China."

Cairns Airport aviation business development general manager Rob Evans said the new flights were part of the long-term agreement between the airline and the airport.

"We welcome these increased services which demonstrate Jetstar’s confidence in our region to continue to attract visitors," he said.

"We expect the additional daily service to Brisbane will be well utilised by locals and visitors alike, while the introduction of a daily service to Coolangatta will further strengthen the link between Queensland’s two major tourist destinations of the Gold Coast and tropical North Queensland."

Jetstar corporate relations head Simon Westaway said the move to a daily A320 service on the Gold Coast route affirmed Jetstar’s ongoing support for the important Japanese market.

"It allows even greater support for group and individual travellers to package Queensland while growing a new market out of the Gold Coast for Cairns," he said.

One way airfares on both Brisbane and Gold Coast direct
flights start from $119.

Last year, Jetstar added 22 extra weekly services, adding more flights to Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney. The airline also reintroduced direct Osaka flights and will start a direct Auckland service in April

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2011/01/14/144461_local-news.html
That is a big boost on the CNS-OOL route more than 100% increase I hope they do well but it is a diificult market to increase services at the moment.

[Kain C]

The last paragraph of the article forgot to mention that JQ added a daily OOL-HBA from Dec 22 last year.

[Ryan K]

Just a thought - but is it possible that the Q400 would be a good choice for QF on SYD-OOL?

They already use them on BNE-CBR, which is a longer flight - but i'd say 3 daily Q400 returns ex syd would be far more profitable than 2 737 returns.

Or, could or the Q400 be used on a new SYD-LST service? Only DJ and JQ have daily services between these two cities at present.

[Brock Little]

Or, could or the Q400 be used on a new SYD-LST service? Only DJ and JQ have daily services between these two cities at present.

Why not both, even if TT has a once daily service OOL-SYD-OOL? LST and OOL are both without QF :(
Even if JQ scales back on some frequency, the QF Link flights could go in their place. An early morning QFLink service, Afternoon, and night would do for OOL, as well as LST.