OzJet

forzaminardi

I checked their Web site and it seems they are not flying yet. Their Web site doesn't look very "fresh" either (forza even looks more professional, even if I say so myself). It says they are still filing for a license.

Will they ever take off? Lease, you're the expert.

Telstar

I read something back in June that they planned to be flying by the end of this year and where possibly going to merge with Backpackers Express, another Austrailian airline.

The OzJet site is a joke as of this moment, and the history of Stoddart is inaccurate still.

Brooksey

They'll be in the air soon, SMH has this to say.

Laughed off as a joke by many in the airline industry only weeks ago, OzJet's plans to enter the domestic aviation market are being taken seriously after the Civil Aviation Safety Authority said the carrier's plans to gain its licence to fly were "going surprisingly well".

Three weeks after applying to CASA for its Air Operator's Certificate, the carrier - backed by Formula 1 racing identity Paul Stoddart - said it hoped to launch services by early October.

And despite recent aggressive moves by Virgin Blue, Jetstar and Qantas in attracting higher-paying business passengers, OzJet chief executive Hans van Pelt said plans to launch the all-business-class airline were on track.

"Every day that goes by we're getting some great reaction; people who just can't wait for it to start flying [and] who want to give it a go," he said.

He also shrugged off concerns that OzJet's fleet of fuel-guzzling 30-year-old Boeing 737s would be uneconomical, given the surge in oil prices.

"Certainly all the numbers we're looking at for OzJet [on] a revenue-forecast perspective would include a fuel rate in the mid to high US60s," Mr van Pelt said, referring to the price of jet fuel, which hovered around $US68.50 a barrel on Friday.

He also said that the planes were fully owned by Mr Stoddart's air charter business, European Aviation, and so incurred no debt repayment costs. Or, as other people noted, nil depreciation costs given their age.

Mr van Pelt put the set-up cost of OzJet at about $43 million and said the Adelaide-based carrier aimed to secure a modest slice of domestic aviation.

"On some of the larger markets, like for argument's sake Sydney to Melbourne, we'd be looking for 2½ per cent market share. As a whole, we'll only ever look for single-digit market share," he said.

But it is unlikely Qantas and Virgin Blue will be willing to hand over even a sliver of their business market to OzJet, given both airlines have been desperate to counter the overall dip in yields in past months.

After initially offering a lukewarm response to OzJet's plans to start flights, CASA said OzJet might get its operator's certificate by early November.

"It's going surprisingly well," CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said.

He said Mr Stoddart had "thrown a lot of resources" and personnel at the operator's certificate from his European Aviation air charter business in the UK. Nonetheless, CASA said, OzJet's plans to have its certificate by early October were on the optimistic side.

Lease

Got an update from Ozjet the other day in fact. They have appointed most of the aircrew and are progressively hiring cabin creew at the moment.

Contracts for maintenance and airside servicing seem to be mostly in place, so apart from the AOC and a few other details, it looks to be heading towards start-up. The fleet has been slowly arriving over recent months as well. This has got to be the biggest problem for Ozjet. Domestic travellers in Oz don't fly in old aeroplanes as a rule. Virgin's fleet are all 737-800s of very recent vintage; Jetstar are phasing out ten-year-old 717s for brand new A320s and Qantas have now replaced all of their existing 737-300s for -800s. The oldest things on the register are Qantas 767-336s, which themselves are being replaced by A330s.

Stick -200 series 737s in that offering and it don't look too good.

Still, the service offering is good, so if people are prepared to fly on these clunkers, who knows?