Perth Airport Welcomes Virgin Blue’s Route Expansion

Perth Airport has warmly welcomed Virgin Blue’s announcement of new daily direct services from Perth to Darwin starting 28 April 2009.

The new Perth to Darwin route continues Virgin Blue’s expansion of operations in Perth including the airline’s recent commencement of services from Perth to Newman and Karratha in October last year and services to Bali in December.

Perth Airport Chief Executive Officer Brad Geatches said Virgin Blue’s entry into the Perth to Darwin market brings more competition to the route and more choice for Western Australian travellers.

“With airlines such as Virgin Blue adding new domestic services it provides more flexibility for travellers at a time when airlines are offering great fares to travel,” Mr Geatches said.

Earlier this year, Perth Airport released its passenger numbers with domestic and regional passenger numbers which were up by 5.3% on January 2008 and up by 8.9% for the financial year to date to 4.2 million passengers.

Domestic passenger traffic has been assisted by intrastate services and by new services to Sydney and Brisbane with Virgin Blue.

Virgin Blue will operate the daily service to Darwin on 737’s. The service will depart Darwin at 7.00am and arrive in Perth at 9.20am before turning around for Darwin on the same day.

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