Low-cost airline «Jetstar Airways»

Jetstar Airways is an Australian budget airline, a division of Qantas, founded in 2003. Headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. The company was founded in response to the entry of Virgin Blue (now Virgin Australia). The airline operates many domestic flights, as well as international transportation. In addition to Jetstar Airways, the parent company Qantas has stakes in airlines such as Jetstar Asia Airways and Valuair in Singapore (due to a stake in Orange Star) and Jetstar Pacific Airlines in Vietnam. Base airport — Melbourne.

The airline was founded by Qantas in 2003 as a low-cost airline. Prior to that, Qantas acquired Impulse Airlines on November 20, 2001 and transferred it to the QantasLink brand. After the decision was made to organize a budget airline, it was renamed Jetstar Airways. The sale of tickets for the new company’s flights began in February 2004, and the first domestic flight took place on May 25 of that year. The first international flight to Christchurch, New Zealand took place on December 1, 2005. Although Jetstar Airways is a division of Qantas, the company is managed independently of Qantas management.

The airline’s first office was located at Avalon Airport. The first flight from this airport took place in mid-2004.

Selection of seats in the cabin of introduction on all flights of the airline from October 4, 2006. Jetstar Airways was the first airline in Australia to offer such a service to its passengers.

Jetstar Asia Airways’ first flight took place on December 13, 2004 from Singapore to Hong Kong. Thanks to this, Qantas entered the huge market of budget air transportation in Asia and was able to impose competition from Singapore Airlines, which is its main competitor in the market of Southeast Asia. Qantas has a 42.5% stake in Jetstar Asia Airways.

Since July 2006, Jetstar Airways and Jetstar Asia Airways have been merged under a single Jetstar brand and it has become possible to purchase tickets from both airlines on Jetstar.com.

In July 2007, Qantas acquired a 18% stake in Vietnamese carrier Pacific Airlines, and in 2010 increased its stake to 30%. On May 23, 2008, the airline was renamed Jetstar Pacifi.

On April 28, 2009, Jetstar began daily flights from Auckland to the Gold Coast and Sydney. On June 10 of the same year, the airline began regular domestic flights in New Zealand between Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown. On these routes, Jetstar has replaced Jetconnect.

On February 1, 2011, Jetstar began working with the Oneworld Alliance to enable Jetstar routes to be reserved for all Alliance partners. However, tickets in this case must be purchased through Qantas.