Air North to get a second E170

[Steve Jones]

From ABC online:

Airnorth to expand services with new plane

The Darwin-based airline Airnorth looks set to increase flights out of the Top End early next year.

The company has signed contracts for a new 76 seater regional jet to add to its fleet in April.

Details of their expanded schedule are yet to be announced, but the airline's Michael Bridge says the company has no plans to fill the gap left by Tiger Airlines.

Instead, it will use the $32 million plane to maintain services across the Territory, the top of Western Australia and in south-east Asia.

"We're very much about increasing the frequency and therefore the capacity into a lot of these regional destinations," he says.

"There's a couple of growing destinations around the countryside, and the fantastic thing about this aeroplane is that we can get it direct into any capital city in Australia or out into KL, Manila, Singapore, Jakarta, fully loaded.

"So it certainly does open up a whole range of prospects for us.

"But we certainly won't be operating the aircraft to any of the main trunk routes around Australia or internationally, so I doubt whether we're a solution to Tiger's withdrawal from Melbourne or Singapore."