Jetstar's five times weekly flights from Darwin start from A$259 for an all- inclusive, one-way JetSaver Light fare to Ho Chi Minh City and $159 to Sydney at Jetstar.com
Jetstar now operates 56 weekly domestic and international services out of Darwin, offering a total of almost 10,000 seats each week.
The new routes mean Darwin is now connected with two Asian cities, Ho Chi Minh and Singapore, and domestically to Melbourne, Cairns, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney.
"We're really excited to be bringing Australia's famous low fares, and great new destinations to Darwin. Darwin is now connected to all the eastern seaboard capital cities by Jetstar, so Territorians now have even more places to visit, with regular flights, at even lower fares," said Bruce Buchanan, Jetstar Group GM commercial.
"Our existing services to Darwin from Singapore and now from Ho Chi Minh City offer opportunities for Territorians and Australians alike to link into our operations in Singapore and Vietnam, opening up a further 22 South East Asian markets and destinations such as Bangkok and Hong Kong.
"Today is an important milestone in the development of our Darwin hub to connect Australia with South East Asia, and offer more people the chance to travel to more places, for less," Buchanan said.
The take-up of services through Darwin onto Singapore and Ho Chi Minh are performing above expectations, demonstrating the unprecedented opportunity Darwin presents for Jetstar, and the opportunities for the Territory as a tourism destination.
"The support of the Northern Territory Government, Darwin Airport and local tourism industry is going to be integral to the development of the aviation hub in Darwin," Buchanan said.
Jetstar will have three aircraft based in Darwin by mid next year, with up to seven aircraft to be based in Darwin by 2013.
Jetstar will shortly commence a formal recruitment process for personnel in Darwin. "Over the next few years, Jetstar will be hiring a number of direct staff, but the potential indirect impact on tourism, industry opportunities and the boost to jobs should not be under-estimated," Buchanan said.
The Sydney-Darwin-Ho Chi Minh City service operates as a domestic to international connecting flight through Darwin with passengers departing from Jetstar's domestic facility at Sydney Airport, checking in once only and receiving two boarding passes for both flight sectors to Ho Chi Minh City. The same applies southbound from Ho Chi Minh City.
Jetstar now operates to Darwin a double daily Melbourne-Darwin service, double daily between Darwin - Singapore, daily direct from Cairns, six times weekly between Brisbane-Darwin, and five times weekly between Adelaide-Darwin, Sydney-Darwin and Ho Chi Minh City-Darwin.
Jetstar's new service Sydney-Darwin-Ho Chi Minh City from 2 September 2008
(Departure times shown Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun)
Sydney-Darwin
Flight JQ 73 Departs: 12.35
Darwin-Ho Chi Minh City
Flight JQ 73 Departs: 18.40
Ho Chi Minh City-Darwin
Flight JQ74 Departs: 22.25
Darwin-Sydney
Flight JQ74 Departs: 08.35 (+1)
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