An Australian air-charter company last Wednesday said it will launch a new budget carrier flying passengers both domestically and to regional tourist hotspots in the wake of Qantas’s grounding crisis.
Stategic Airlines said it will add more routes to its existing line-up and rename itself ‘Air Australia’, with jets sporting the iconic green and gold usually associated with the nation’s sporting teams.
“Strategic Airlines will retire its name, red white and blue brand and full service business model commencing from November 15 to become Air Australia, a new international and domestic low-cost carrier,” the firm said.
The move comes after tens of thousands of Australians were stranded over the weekend when flag carrier Qantas grounded all its fleet worldwide amid an ongoing row with unions, doing serious damage to its reputation.
The first Air Australia flight will also take off on November 15, and the new brand will absorb Strategic’s routes to Bali in Indonesia and Thailand’s Phuket, before launching a brand new service to Honolulu in December. The island destinations are extremely popular with Australian tourists.
The airline will also continue Strategic’s flights from Brisbane and Perth to key mining destinations at Port Hedland and Derby, in the minerals-rich Kimberley region, chief commercial officer Damien Vasta said.
Domestic services will start between Melbourne and Brisbane, he added.
Air Australia will next month add a second Airbus A330 to its fleet, which also contains three A320s, and Vasta said it will be targeting up to five flights a week to Bali and as many as three a week to the other foreign ports.
Qantas’s rivals including Air Asia X – the long-haul affiliate of Malaysia budget carrier Air Asia of which Richard Branson’s Virgin Group owns a stake – stepped in with discount fares and extra capacity to help marooned passengers following Qantas’s grounding.
Singapore last week launched a long-haul budget carrier, Scoot, amid thriving rivalry for Asia’s growing ranks of middle-class travellers.