Mining boom prompts Qantas to up Western Australia capacity

QANTAS is to increase capacity to its north west Australia regional centres of Karratha, Paraburdoo and Port Hedland in the coming months, including the launch of a new Port Hedland-Melbourne route in September.

Additional services will include three Perth-Paraburdoo return morning services, operating on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursday mornings, increasing the number of weekly services on the route to 24, from July; and one Karratha-Brisbane return service operating on Wednesdays, resulting in two return services on the route each week from September.

Qantas Western Australia general manager Ian Gay said the services were a response to increased demand from the mining and energy sectors, and would provide new opportunities for regional Western Australian communities.

"Qantas has been operating Brisbane-Karratha services since 2008, and launched Melbourne-Karratha and Sydney-Karratha services in the last two months. We have also serviced Broome from Sydney and Melbourne since April 2004 and March 2003 respectively," he said.

"We are very pleased to now add Port Hedland to the list of east-west routes that Qantas business and leisure customers can fly to direct from the eastern states, and appreciate the support of the Town of Port Hedland, which assisted us in ensuring this new service can commence as soon as possible."

Mr Gay also said Qantas had made a significant investment in improving its airport infrastructure in both Perth and regional Western Australian ports.

"Qantas has invested A$75 million (US$65.6 million) in redeveloping the domestic terminal at Perth Airport including installing three additional baggage carousels, six new check-in counters, a large A330 aerobridge, the upgrading of a gate from B737 to B767 capability, extra seating space, and a 1,500 square metre stand-alone security screening facility to ease congestion at the terminal," he said.

"We have also improved the airport experience in several regional ports by installing QuickCheck kiosks in Broome, Kalgoorlie, Karratha and Port Hedland earlier this year, which, along with automated gate boarding, is providing customers with a faster boarding process."

Qantas is offering a celebratory launch fare on the Port Hedland-Melbourne route of A$249 one-way on sale from today until July 31 for travel from September 7 to December 7 when booked via qantas.com, excluding credit card charges.
(Source:www.schednet.com)