Asian air routes too tough for some

Recent changes to some airlines’ routes have provided a mixed bag for those flying into and out of Perth, with more ways to connect to Europe but fewer options to and from Asia.

That news comes as figures show Perth Airport cracked the 4 million mark for total international passengers last financial year, an increase of 8.4 per cent compared with 2012-13.

Among the recent changes at the international terminal, Etihad has introduced a daily Perth-to-Abu Dhabi service (with connecting flights to Europe), while Garuda Indonesia Perth-to-Jakarta flights now can be connected through London to Amsterdam.

However, Perth lost its regular Qantas service to Singapore in May, while Jetstar Airways cancelled its Perth-to-Jakarta flights and will cease its four-times weekly service to Lombok next month.

Philippine Airways Perth-to-Manila-via-Darwin service also stopped in June last year.

Qantas’s decision to drop regular services to Singapore, and operate only seasonal flights, has been somewhat mitigated by discount airline Scoot, which has been operating the route five times a week since last December.

According to official figures for the year ended June 2014, Singapore is the most popular international city for flights to and from Perth Airport.

Just over 1 million people flew between Singapore and Perth, while about 830,000 flew to or from Denpasar.

For the year ended December 2013, Singapore Airlines operated the most international seats into and out of Perth, followed by Emirates.

Discount airlines Indonesia AirAsia, AirAsiaX and JetStar Airways rounded out the top five airlines carrying the most passengers to and from Perth.

Starting this December, Air New Zealand will offer more direct seasonal Perth-to-Christchurch flights, having this week introduced its 787-9 Dreamliner service.

International passengers at Perth Airport account for 12.5 per cent of all international passenger traffic through Australia.

Nationally, the cities most often flown into or from Australia last year were Singapore (accounting for 16.6 per cent of total passenger movements), Auckland (13.1 per cent), Kuala Lumpur (7.8 per cent), Dubai (7.8 per cent) and Hong Kong (6.8 per cent).