Not all bad news at all ...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-2...42?section=tas
Quote:
Jetstar adds more Tasmanian flights
Updated May 28, 2012 15:14:05
Budget airline Jetstar is boosting the number of flights to Tasmania.
The airline will start increasing services from August 16.
Seven additional return flights a week will run between Sydney and Hobart, with an extra seven between Melbourne and Launceston.
The budget carrier says there will also be more flights between Sydney and Launceston and Melbourne and Hobart in November, in time for Tasmania's peak summer tourism period.
The increase means there will be an extra 408,000 seats between Tasmania and other states next financial year.
Jetstar spokesman David Koczkar says there is a strong demand for access to the state.
"At the moment we're focussing our growth today on flights between Hobart and Launceston to Melbourne and Sydney which are our biggest markets."
"It'll provide more access to those markets, lower fares. It'll also be better connections to South-East Asia, China and New Zealand."
The tourism industry has blamed a lack of access to the state for recent fare increases.
Fares are now expected to come down.
Luke Martin from the Tourism Industry Council says the extra flights will boost capacity by 20 per cent.
By summer he says that flight capacity into the state will be at an all-time high.
"We saw a 50,000 decline in visitor numbers last year and a lot of that is due to access putting that cap on people's ability to enter the state," he said.
"So if we can turn that around it's going to continue to give incentives to people to want to invest in tourism products, it's going to give people some certainty about the state of the industry."
Tourism Minister Scott Bacon has welcomed the announcement.
"It'll mean more services, more competition and more people into Tasmania, into both Hobart and Launceston and it is fantastic news."
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So by my calculations by peak season JQ will make:
HBA-MEL x 7
LST-MEL x 5.5
HBA-SYD x 4
LST-SYD x 3
HBA-OOL x 1
LST-BNE x 1
Looks like extra HBA-SYD and LST-MEL start on Aug 16, with extra HBA-MEL and LST-SYD starting Nov 15.