Qantas to open Pilot Base in Perth

Qantas is to establish a pilot base in Perth in December 2008. The airline will base around 80 pilots in Perth for intra-Western Australia and transcontinental flying to support the airline's recently announced capacity increases.

"The State's mining and resource sector is booming and the east-west business and tourism traffic continues to grow," Chief Executive Officer of Qantas, Mr Geoff Dixon, said. "Basing pilots in Perth will ensure the best possible support for our extensive and growing Western Australia schedule."

The airline recently announced that from June 2008 it will add extra services between Perth and the key resource and tourism destinations of Broome, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Newman and Port Hedland.

The addition of new Western Australian services from June 2008 will mean that Qantas will operate 317 services from Perth to 15 domestic destinations.

The pilot base - only the fourth to be established on Qantas' domestic network - will share Qantas facilities at Perth Airport, where the airline's 340 cabin crew are also based.

Qantas also has pilot bases in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

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