Aussie airlines scramble over Fiji route

September 03, 2009 03:06:10 PM

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A major fight is brewing on the Australia-Fiji air route with Qantas following on the heels of Virgin Blue to seek permission to launch new services on the sector through low-cost subsidiary Jetstar.

Qantas lodged an application late last week with the International Air Services Commission for almost 1500 seats on the route after Virgin applied for 1260 more seats and to transfer another 1260 from Pacific Blue to V Australia.

The Australian newspaper reports that Virgin wants to fly V Australia's 360-seat Boeing 777-300ERs to Nadi as part of moves to work the widebody jets harder.

The daily service would allow a plane that currently spends 12 hours on the ground in Sydney in between flights to the US to be used on the nine-hour return trip to Fiji.

Qantas said the Jetstar daily services were planned to start between Sydney and Nadi from next April.

The commission said both carriers had applied for the same limited capacity and they would need to justify their claims on public benefit grounds by September 8. It has also invited submissions from other interested parties.

Qantas, which also owns 46 per cent of Fiji’s national airline Air Pacific, is seeking 1491 seats a week.