New Jetstar route links Hangzhou to Singapore

We have yet another good reason to head to Hangzhou that thankfully doesn’t involve West Lake.

AirAsia’s Hangzhou hub is getting some competition as Shanghaiist reports that Australian budget airline Jetstar will begin running flights three to four times a week between its Singapore hub to Hangzhou airport starting 22 March. 

Jetstar will be the first carrier to link the two destinations and all services will using the Airbus A320 aircraft.

For all those aggrieved because Shanghai does not accept any international discount carrier flights (do you really think Hangzhou is Jetstar's first choice?), at least Hangzhou is only a bullet train ride away from Shanghai.

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Shanghaiist also points out that daily buses run from Huangpu Bus Station to the Hangzhou airport and vice versa with one-way tickets priced at RMB 100.

Hangzhou will become Jetstar's seventh Chinese destination and the fourth Chinese city the airline has added in the past 12 months. In the last year, Jetstar has begun offering flights to Haikou, Shantou and Guilin.

''We will be focusing on marketing Singapore both as a hub and a destination,'' said the chief executive of Jetstar Group, Bruce Buchanan. The Hangzhou service is part of a strategy ''to further grow our low fare services to China''.

The Jetstar website is already taking ticket reservations, with tickets staring around RMB 500. If you’re willing to hop a train after your flight, this connection might prove a good bet for Shanghai travelers.

Although not explicitly part of the new alliance formed by Jetstar and AirAsia, this new route comes on the heals of their recent announcement that the two airlines plan to pool resouces to save costs and better serve the Asian budget market.