Weathering the turbulence

Anyone who has opened a newspaper or tuned into the news lately would have found it hard to ignore the endless reports about rising costs, particularly for everyday items such as groceries and petrol. It seems that every week, the cost of a barrel of oil sets a new record high, impacting on everything from the prices we pay to fill our cars to the production of goods we consume on a daily basis.

Airlines are also heavily affected by the price of oil. In June, the Director General of the International Air Transport Association, Giovanni Bisignani, referred to the high cost of oil as aviation’s “perfect storm”. He said carriers faced a rise in costs of US$1.6 billion for every dollar rise in crude oil prices, that 24 airlines had gone bankrupt in the past six months and that the sector faced US$99 billion of extra fuel costs in the year ahead.

Jetstar is continually assessing its operations to maximise fuel efficiency, minimise costs and to keep fares as low as possible for our passengers. Recently, after closely assessing each market with Qantas, our parent company, Jetstar announced a range of cost-saving measures to be achieved through schedule changes. These changes included launching two new Jetstar international routes, which had previously been operated by Qantas.

Jetstar will launch operations to Jakarta (from Perth, commencing 28 October) and to Tokyo (from the Gold Coast and Cairns, commencing 18 December)*. Tickets for these new services are now on sale.

In other news, now that the kids are back at school after the winter break, we’re running a fantastic promotion that encourages kids to channel their aviation enthusiasm and win Jetstar vouchers for their school. As seen on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program, families at every Australian school can now collect their Jetstar boarding passes to redeem flights on Jetstar. Collecting 25 Jetstar boarding passes will give your school the chance to redeem one return domestic flight on the Jetstar network and 50 boarding passes will give you two return domestic airfares. For more details visit the website Jetstar.com/collect4schools.

And finally, in this month’s Jetstar Magazine we offer musical treats with two of Australia’s very different talents – the young and feisty Gabriella Cilmi and the chilled-out and very private Pete Murray. Now all you have to do is sit back, grab some headsets, tune into our audio entertainment and enjoy your flight.

Alan Joyce
CEO Jetstar Airways

*Subject to regulatory approval