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Jetstar to scrap Singapore-Auckland flights

SINGAPORE — Travellers looking for bargain airfares from Singapore to Auckland will soon have fewer options, following an announcement by Jetstar Airways yesterday that it would suspend its thrice-weekly flights between the two cities from late July.

SINGAPORE — Travellers looking for bargain airfares from Singapore to Auckland will soon have fewer options, following an announcement by Jetstar Airways yesterday that it would suspend its thrice-weekly flights between the two cities from late July.

The budget carrier, citing the route’s poor performance, said it would withdraw the service after its last flight on July 21.

The move will see Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Air New Zealand monopolising the route, should their proposed partnership receive the go-ahead from regulators.

SIA and Air New Zealand announced a tie-up earlier this year to expand services to their home countries by operating daily flights and using larger aircraft, boosting capacity by up to 30 per cent.

Pending approval, flights under the new alliance could start as early as December.

“Jetstar Airways is always keen to bring competition to monopoly routes and, for the past three years, has provided a low-fare choice on the Singapore-Auckland route. Unfortunately, the route has not performed as we would have liked and we have decided that the capacity could be put to better use on other routes,” said a spokesman yesterday.

The airline started plying the route daily in March 2011 and subsequently reduced its services to three times a week to “better meet demand”.

In the next few months, it will commence flights between Melbourne and Tokyo, as well as between Brisbane and Bali.

The announcement follows parent carrier Qantas’ decision to put the brakes on Jetstar’s expansion plans, which includes deferring its new aircraft deliveries, as part of an attempt to cut costs and restructure the struggling airline.

Auckland Airport said in a statement that it is disappointed as Jetstar’s decision “will remove almost 100,000 low-fare seats from the market and reduce the travel choices of 85,000 passengers every year”.

Mr Glenn Wedlock, Auckland Airport’s General Manager (Aeronautical Commercial), said: “Today’s announcement confirms the concerns we expressed to New Zealand’s Minister of Transport that the proposed alliance between Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand could have detrimental impact on the growth and promotion of competition among international air services.”

Aviation news website Flightglobal’s reporter Ellis Taylor said the partnership would have made it more challenging for Jetstar to operate an under-performing route.

“I think (Jetstar) realised this alliance might go ahead and it would find it very hard to compete against SIA and Air New Zealand. Lower fares would be its main way of competing, but the problem is, when you only have three flights a week, it’s hard to make it attractive to people,” he said, adding that the absence of Jetstar might not necessarily mean higher fares for the route.

“In the short term, (Jetstar’s decision) will probably drive fares up because it won’t need to compete on prices. But, the more seats you have, the cheaper fares are going to be to fill those seats, so that could see fares settle at an okay level,” said Mr Taylor.

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