QantasLink will increase flights, capacity and lower fares on routes from Brisbane and Cairns after being awarded the contract to provide regional services to Western and Far North Queensland for a further five years.
The subsidiary to national carrier Qantas won the contract for the third time from the Queensland regional government, under whose regulation it has committed to improve various aspects of services.
”QantasLink recently invested AUS$400m (”178m) in an additional 12 new Bombardier Q400 aircraft which will allow us to upgrade capacity on key regional routes,” said Qantas Group general manager regional airlines, Narendra Kumar.
”These state-of-the-art aircraft will join our high performance 50-seat Dash 8-Q300s and 36-seat Dash 8-Q200s, ensuring Queensland communities have access to the best available aircraft.”
Changes include: an additional 159 seats per week on flights from Brisbane ” Queensland”s capital and the third largest Australian city ” to Longreach, Barcaldine and Blackall, with a Q400 cutting flight times on the Longreach rotation by 20% to less than two hours; 451 extra weekly seats from Brisbane to Roma and Charleville, and 736 additional weekly seats on the Cairns-Weipa rotation, with a Q400 reducing flights to 1hr20min.
There will be cheaper residents-only fares on all of these routes, with reductions of up to AUS$76 on current lowest fares.
”Over the past five years, we have increased capacity and passenger numbers on these Queensland regional routes by more than 50% in response to strong growth from both the state”s business and tourism sectors,” said Kumar.