Airlines servicing Western Australia's growing resources centres and mine sites have again boosted services and capacity as demand for air services into the regions continues to strengthen.
WA-based airline, Skywest, is about to embark on the biggest expansion of its network in several years, fuelled by surging demand for its services from the mining sector.
The airline has announced that, from this week, it will resume its twice-weekly Perth-Karratha service, operated by 100-seat Fokker 100 jet aircraft.
The two services will operate on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings, with fares starting from $249 one way.
It will also increase the number of flights on its Perth to Geraldton service from 37 to 40, with an extra two flights a week on the Perth to Albany service taking the total number of flights to 20 a week.
The three weekly services from Perth to Exmouth will be upgraded to a jet service, representing a 14 per cent increase in capacity to the north-west town.
Skywest chief executive Paul Daff said the airline was resuming services to Karratha on the back of strong support from a resource company.
"The services will provide much-needed capacity and competition onto Western Australia's busiest regional service," he said.
The airline has also flagged possible fare increases in the near term, as it undertakes a review of its fuel levy charge.
Increases in oil and jet fuel prices have also forced national carrier Qantas to lift its domestic fares by about 3 per cent and international fares by 4 per cent.
The airline said it would also look to make efficiency improvements and will conduct a review of the network and schedules of Qantas, QantasLink and Jetstar.
The news comes after Qantas announced it would establish a pilot base in Perth in December 2008, allowing the airline to base pilots in Perth to ensure strong support for its extensive and growing WA schedule.
About 80 pilots would be based in Perth for intra-WA and transcontinental flying to support the airline's recently announced capacity increases to service the state's mining boom and growing east-west business and tourism traffic.
From June, Qantas will add extra services between Perth and Broome, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Newman and Port Hedland, taking the number of services it operates from Perth to 15 domestic destinations to 317 services in total.
Earlier this month, OzJet Airlines put an additional flight on its Perth to Derby route after the airline negotiated with mining companies to utilise an increased number of seats on the route.
The airline commenced services to Derby in February 2007 with three flights a week, returning a jet service there after 14 years absence.
Other locally-based companies that service the regions include charter airlines Network Aviation and Skippers Aviation.