Fuel costs stifle Jetstar growth bid

Alex de Vos
Rising fuel costs had forced Jetstar to hold back on plans for more flights from Avalon Airport, a company spokesperson said yesterday.
Simon Westaway said the budget airline was feeling the squeeze as fuel prices reached all-time highs.
“We’ve made some changes to our base schedule and slowed the rate of growth,” he said.
“We’ve still got more services than ever before but we’re growing at a slower rate than we expected.
“We sold a schedule for the future with more flights but we’ve had to pull some of those services out.”
Mr Westaway said Jetstar’s fuel bill accounted for almost half the airline’s operating costs.
“Our fuel bill is 40 per cent of our overall costs, while in 2004 it was 17 per cent,” he said.
“Rising fuel costs are clearly significant.”