No plans to expand services into Whanganui says Jetstar

REGIONAL GROWTH: This Jetstar Bombardier Q300 touches down in Wellington to launch the service between the capital city and Nelson last week.

While Jetstar ramps up its regional services around the country, the budget airline said Whanganui is not in its sights at this stage.

Last week the budget airline launched new services through New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Nelson airports.

The airline launched with budget flights from Napier and Nelson to Auckland in December and has followed that up with the take-off of regular services from New Plymouth and Palmerston North to Auckland from last week. It also started a regular Nelson to Wellington service at the same time.

A spokesman for Jetstar said the airline had no plans for expanding its service to take in Whanganui at this stage.

David Hall, Jetstar chief executive officer, said services through Nelson and Napier had "taken off" since they were introduced in December and he was sure the new routes will prove to be as popular.

Mr Hall said overall passenger numbers through Nelson rose 18 per cent in December compared with the same month the previous year, with traffic on the Nelson-Auckland route jumping by a third. Hawke's Bay Airport had a record December with passenger numbers increasing 14 per cent over the same month in 2014.

He said Jetstar would have more than 600,000 seats on sale across its regional network this year and all at budget prices.

"Many passengers on our new regional services have never flown before or haven't travelled by air for many years. That's the kind of growth a low fares airline brings to new routes - new customers and more frequent flyers."

New Plymouth airport has added a temporary Jetstar terminal building to support the launch of the new services and Palmerston North has also made changes to accommodate increased traffic.

Jetstar - an adjunct of Qantas - has five 50-seat Bombardier Q300s available for its regional operation.

At this stage there will be 27 flights a week from New Plymouth, Palmerston North, Nelson and Napier to Auckland, with a further 21 weekly flights between Nelson and Wellington.