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Skywest jets announced

Skywest Airlines has confirmed it will commence jet services to Geraldton and will open a Geraldton-Port Hedland route in coming months.

Skywest vicepresident commercial Alan Stuart said this was an exciting step for the airline and it was looking to add further services including a G e r a l d t o n - Melbourne via Kalgoorlie service within the next few months.

“We are very excited with the development, we will be able to offer people in Geraldton packages via Port Hedland to Denpasar, Bali and it will also open up that Pilbara fly-in, fly-out link,” he said.

“This is an important growth market for the airline and we are tremendously excited by the development.

“Obviously we would like to offer Geraldton- Bali direct flights but this is a matter of waiting until the Geraldton Regional Airport has international accreditation.”

Skywest will introduce its Fokker F100 jet service as part of the rampup in services — flying to Perth from the first week of June.

It currently flies the Fokker F50 turbo prop between Perth and Geraldton daily.

“Once we open the Geraldton-Melbourne service we will look at offering weekend football packages to the people of Geraldton.”

Mr Stuart said this was phase one of its plan to expand services in the regions.

ALEX MCKINNON