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Hail a new era of competition

A new era of competition landed at Geraldton Airport on Monday when QantasLink launched its commercial service between Perth and Geraldton.

After the 74-seat Q400 aircraft taxied under a welcoming shower from fire tenders, City of Greater Geraldton mayor, Ian Carpenter, joined Qantas group executive Rob Gurney in christening it as the aptly named ‘City of Greater Geraldton’ with a few drops of celebratory sparkling wine.

QantasLink will fly to Perth and back twice a day from Monday to Friday and once per day on Saturday and Sunday.

Mr Gurney said the flights would open up the Mid West and its key attractions to more visitors than ever.

“These new QantasLink services have been timed to offer our customers simple and straightforward connections to Qantas’ domestic and international networks,” Mr Gurney said.

He said the City and the regional tourism industry had been very supportive and QantasLink looked forward to making the services work for the local community and the business, mining and resources sectors.

Asked if he thought the recent Qantas grounding might have eroded consumer confidence, Mr Gurney declined to comment on the grounding but was decidedly upbeat.

“We are going forward and customers can book Qantas and QantasLink flights with certainty and confidence,” he said.

“Our bookings have already rebounded very strongly and are back to the levels they were at prior to the industrial dispute.”

Even before the battle for passengers began, Skywest was promoting its introduction of Fokker F100 jets to the route, but QantasLink believes it has the answer with the Q400 turbo-prop.

Developed from the Dash 8 introduced in the late 1980s by Le Havilland Canada, which is now owned by Boeing, the Q400 is slower than the Fokker but quieter, and its maintenance costs are said to be markedly lower.

QantasLink is also enhancing its Perth-Exmouth services, with Q400s operating on that route as of Monday, in addition to Boeing 717s.

From January flight frequencies are expected to increase from two to 11 return services per week, providing an additional 872 seats on that route each week, subject to Government and Department of Defence approvals.

Previously seen as a ‘little brother’ to the national flagcarrier, QantasLink is actually Australia’s largest regional airline, with a network of 56 metropolitan and country destinations, and launched its first international service to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea in July last year.

GARY WARNER