A level playing field?

[leadman]

I know a lot of posts have been critical of QF et al., but transiting through Auckland on Wednesday in a way showed how hard the industry has become. There were three Emirates A380 sitting at the airport, almost 50% of the pax capacity there at that time! I know its happening at MEL, SYD but being a smaller airport they really stuck out like #$%$ *^&%! A Middle Eastern airline with that much capacity at AKL, to me, does not bear well for the continuing future of local airlines which we are of course seeing, a bit like the boiled frog yarn. But of course I'm absolutely sure there is no subsidy, or extra funding helping the airline industry in the Middle East!!!!

I still think we got the "wrong end of the rope" with the QF-EK deal, and taxiing in with our QF 737-800 past two of the monoliths seemed to reinforce that feeling....

 

[harvyk]

QF chose frequency over capacity, they used to run much larger things on TT runs (B767's / A330's and B747's where pretty much daily sights with a few B737's to give some frequency), these days they figure people would rather have a choice of hour in which they fly than to have 1 flight per day which everyone takes.

EK on the other hand does 1 TT flight from BNE / SYD / MEL each day. It's that flight or nothing.

 

[TomVexille]

AKL is the only airport outside of DXB with 3 scheduled EK A380's on the ground at the same time...

 

[leadman]

In a way its not the planes, per se, its the capacity of a "not local" airline....

 

[Boris spatsky]

Article in Washington post today about EK expansion plans into N America. Apparently DL, AA and UA are getting a bit worried.

 

[harvyk]

In a way its not the planes, per se, its the capacity of a "not local" airline....

EK are well known for having secondary destinations, plus they where flying TT well before they linked up with QF. In fact TT was the last group of routes to be given approval to be code shared / have an alliance on.

I guess that's part of EK's advantage, they are very well placed in terms of geography, they have a gov't that is very sympathetic to the airline and they are in the unique position to run a completely wide body fleet (with 1 exception, the executive jet).

 

[leadman]

Yes, understand all the "aviation facts" TT aprovals, etc, etc, but it was just the perception or in this case reality. I was commenting to a fellow passenger and we compared it to the English Football league; the big teams have plenty of money and dominate year in year out, the smaller teams fight to stay alive.... (and i know well my team is Crystal Palace). Emirates are the Manchester City!

 

[anat0l]

I think at the end of the day, the real question to answer is, "Who cares?"

It's actually odd that we don't hear much about the Trans-Tasman market these days, no matter which camp you're backing.

 

[serfty]

There is huge competition.

"Full service" fares on the TT market have basically been static for well over a decade - so in effect they are now much cheaper than at the most recent turn of the century.

NZ apparently have a very loyal Kiwi base and some lucrative locked on government contracts, so have an advantage over QF. If it wasn't for the lower Jetconnect pay rates I'm quite sure there would be no QF metal TT services.

I do find it interesting that VA are planning to introduce Business services, replacing the current PE.

Back in the nineties, flying a qantas 767 auckland to melbourne in business class, the meals were double the normal size - they had been switched over from a cancelled emirates flight due to an unserviceable aircraft.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Article in Washington post today about EK expansion plans into N America. Apparently DL, AA and UA are getting a bit worried.

I haven't flown DL or UA but IMHO, AA is a pretty ordinary experience which probably could use a bit of decent competition.

 

[Alanslegal]

I read somewhere that EK is in the fortunate position that it's DXB airport is like the bulls-eye of the aviation map. From DXB it could pretty much service anywhere in the world (well the important parts anyway) with one flight.

 

[leadman]

More likely a "fortunate position" with the government.......


Not many countries build a new 380 terminal, then announce they are building a 100 plane terminal just down the road! And their advertising bill must be phenomenal. They sponsor almost every event you see.

 

[JohnK]

It's nice to have all that oil money at your disposal.

EK are well known for having secondary destinations, plus they where flying TT well before they linked up with QF. In fact TT was the last group of routes to be given approval to be code shared / have an alliance on.

Tag flights? Most people hate them and wouldn't support them.

Give me a tag flight over limited or no services any day.

 

[TomVexille]

Yes, understand all the "aviation facts" TT aprovals, etc, etc, but it was just the perception or in this case reality. I was commenting to a fellow passenger and we compared it to the English Football league; the big teams have plenty of money and dominate year in year out, the smaller teams fight to stay alive.... (and i know well my team is Crystal Palace). Emirates are the Manchester City!

I think you mean EK are coughnal and EY are Man City

 

[leadman]

Yes in sponsorship, but we were taking about coming from nowhere and spending (m)billions to buy their way in and a premiership or two. We are lucky if we get the corner fish & chip shop!

 

[whatmeworry]

Just looking at old flight records and managed to snare a EK flight form MEL-AKL for $313.83 in 2005. Plane was a 777 back then.

 

[dajop]

It's not only the TT market and carriers in ANZ that are suffering. SQ are doing it tough and both MH (well before the MH370) and TG are really struggling with the competition to Europe from the ME carriers.

Anyone that can do either transatlantic (Europe or NA carriers) or transpacific (QF, CX, North Asia carriers) nonstop has a degree of geographic protection. SE Asian carriers only have intra Asia routes free of EK competition.

 

[Musongman]

I heard it is because it costs Emirates less money to park in AKL than SYD? Could this be right? LOL!!

 

[marks]

But wasn't the rumour that running an half empty EK flight to NZ was cheaper than being at SYD parked overnight during curfew?
Maybe with the TT flights there costs are not totally related to capacity but avoiding other costs.

 

[marks]

I heard it is because it costs Emirates less money to park in AKL than SYD? Could this be right? LOL!!

Snap...............