Virgin Blue and national carrier Qantas are in a war of words after plans for the bigger airline to introduce Jetstar services on the route.
Qantas, which owns 46 percent of Fiji’s national airline Air Pacific, filed an application last weed with the International Air Services Commission for almost 1500 seats on the route to Nadi, as Virgin applied for 1260 more seats and to transfer from Pacific blue to V Australia.
Virgin plans to fly V Australia’s 360-seat Boeing 777-300ERs to Nadi in order to maximise fleet performance, as presently aircraft are required to spend 12 hours on the ground in Sydney in between flights to the US.
The airline says that this type of flying needs only to recover its direct operating costs and expects the new Boeing 777 to generate a higher average ticket price than on the 737s by attracting more up market travellers.
Qantas stated in its application that Jetstar has planned to begin daily services between Sydney and Nadi using A321 aircraft.
Jetstar is seeking 1491 seeks per week which would have a significant impact on Virgin’s daily 777 services.