Secondary Airports and the launch of JetStar

This week we've seen the launch of Australia's third major domestic airline, JetStar, an offshoot of long-term stable house Qantas. JetStar is claiming to have a lower cost structure than Richard Branson's Virgin Blue, and will initially be targetting the domestic tourism market with destinations such as the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.

Interestingly, JetStar is hoping to achieve the lower cost structure by operating out of secondary airports in major cities. In much the same way as JetBlue in the USA flies to Long Beach rather than LAX and Oakland rather than SFO, Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon has announced that JetStar is intending to operate some flights out of Avalon Airport in Melbourne, and has been "looking at" Richmond Air Base in Sydney as an alternative to Mascot. Could it be possible? Could we finally have a choice of airports in Sydney? If Richmond is commercialised, what will this mean for other airlines? Will we see Virgin Blue switching over to Richmond as well?

Groan, I guess we're now one step further away from my long-term goal of being able to take a fast train from Sydney to Melbourne... At least the Alice Springs to Darwin railroad has finally been completed (again).