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Vic: Customers stampede internet for cheap airline tickets
02-26-2004 MELBOURNE, Feb 26 - Australia's newest budget airline caused a ticketing stampede today, selling more than 60,000 cut-price fares and receiving more than 5.5 million hits on its website. Jetstar chief executive Alan Joyce said the company had been inundated with inquiries since the $29 tickets went on sale at 6am. Cut-price competitor Virgin Blue also sold 60,000 tickets by tonight after it announced a deal for twice as many seats at the same price. If both airlines sold all of their 60,000 tickets at $29 each, they would have generated turnover of nearly $1.9 million each within 24 hours. Jetstar, based in Melbourne, starts flying on May 25 with flights from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to 10 eastern-state destinations. The ticket frenzy came after Jetstar's announcement of an introductory offer of 100,000 seats at $29 each. Within hours, rival Virgin Blue put 200,000 seats on the market. Mr Joyce said the new low-fare airline had experienced an "unbelievable" response to its special deal. "We have been averaging more than 200 bookings each minute and 600,000 visits to the website each hour," Mr Joyce said. Can't find what you need? Try a Google Web Search in the box below!
Virgin Blue spokeswoman Amanda Bolger said the airline's website had received more than three times its usual number of visitors after it announced the fares. The unprecedented demand for tickets has also resulted in massive frustrations for customers, leading travel retailer Flight Centre said today. "The internet-based system has been unable to cope with the amount of business that is coming in through the travel agency network this morning and from customers direct," Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner said. "That is enormously frustrating for all parties." Jetstar has also struck trouble with a key aviation union threatening to ground the budget airline over its use of Victoria's Avalon Airport. The Transport Workers Union (TWU) said the union's agreement with Jetstar did not involve running the service out of Avalon, 55km west of Melbourne. Tonight it was locked in meetings with Jetstar management in an attempt to resolve the issue. "We cut the deal on the basis that Jetstar was going to be serviced out of Melbourne Airport," TWU federal secretary John Allan said. "That's what they accepted and with that equation being changed, it's just put the whole deal in jeopardy." The federal government has also dismissed any attempt by the airline to operate some of its Sydney flights out of the RAAF's Richmond air base. "The government will not permit Jetstar to operate through Richmond in any circumstances," a spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister and Transport Minister John Anderson said today. "The government does not believe that Sydney will need a second airport in the forseeable future, not at Wilton, Richmond or anywhere else." Jetstar will be based in Melbourne with flights flying from Avalon, some 50km south of the city, and Melbourne's existing airport at Tullamarine. It will operate up to 88 flights daily from May 25, increasing to 116 flights a day by August.
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