Low-fare airline Jetstar is escalating its New Zealand operations and considering direct long haul flights to North America as well as Asia.

Jetstar said it would base a seventh Airbus A320 aircraft in New Zealand later on this year, which could fly domestic or global routes.The company was also considering deploying two-class A330-200 aircraft to maintain long-haul international services to New Zealand.


Chief executive Bruce Buchanan stated that the company was targeting direct services to Asia and North America as well as three or four fresh routes on the Tasman.

Buchanan stated that they were planning to launch in the next couple of weeks if they were going to proceed with any of those long-haul flights.He also added that the company was in the final phases of discussions with airports and partners and they would make announcements and decisions at the earliest.

He added that if they were going to deploy (A330 aircraft) into New Zealand, to begin with it'd be one aircraft and then they would build up the capability and then would deploy more.