Jetstar wins green light for Bangkok flights

JETSTAR International has been given the green light by the aviation regulator to launch its inaugural service between Melbourne and Bangkok on Thursday.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority late last week granted the new carrier a variation to its air operator certificate allowing its fleet of Airbus A330-200s to fly long-haul international services from Australia.

CASA has also approved 120-minute extended range twin-engine operational performance standards (ETOPS), allowing it start services to Honolulu and Japan.

Thursday’s inaugural flight will be followed the next day by its first Sydney-Phuket service, with Vietnam joining the network the following week.

Services from Melbourne and Sydney to Bali star early December and flights from both cities to Honolulu later that month.

A fourth 303-seat Airbus A330-200 arriving in March will be used on the Sydney-Brisbane-Osaka service and planes five and six are due to consolidate Jetstar's position in Osaka and see it enter Nagoya from August next year.

--theaustralian.news.com 2006-11-20

Geez they leave things till the last minute it seems.

I'll be on one of these Jetstar flights out of Melbourne soon, and I'm looking forward to seeing if their "star-class" really lives up to other business class offerings.