Qantas cuts Auckland flights from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane

[eminere]

From AusBT:

Qantas will axe up to 15 daily trans-Tasman flights from October, slashing services from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Auckland. Up to half of those routes will be handed over to low-cost offshoot Jetstar as Qantas continues its cost-cutting campaign. Qantas says it is moving to a seasonally-driven schedule geared more closely to the different demands of business and leisure travellers. There will be three fewer Qantas flights a week during the peak season but 15 less across the low season. From October 26 Qantas will cancel one daily Melbourne-Auckland flight and one daily Sydney-Auckland flight, while also trimming the Brisbane-Auckland timetable to five flights a week. Jetstar will step in with six new weekly Melbourne-Auckland services and a new weekly Sydney-Auckland flight, but will also axe its thrice-weekly Adelaide-Auckland service from August 24.

The trans-Tasman corridor is Australia's most popular international route, with a total of 2.5 million travellers from both Australia and New Zealand crossing the pond each year. Stepping down to to all-economy Jetstar flights are unlikely to please corporate travellers who book into Qantas business class. But there's little choice in it for travellers leaning towards the Virgin Australia/Air New Zealand alliance, as most of those airlines' flights also forego a business class cabin. However, Virgin Australia is expected to move to take advantage of Qantas' cuts. Earlier this year Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti revealed plans to take the trans-Tasman alliance with Air New Zealand to a new level. "Trans-Tasman is in good shape and the alignment with Air New Zealand has been nothing short of superb" he told Australian Business Traveller, "but the best thing about that is there is still a lot more that we can do together, and you will see that happen over the next nine months or so." In July 2013 Qantas pledged to maintain "existing capacity on trans-Tasman routes that both Qantas and Emirates fly" as a condition of approval for its partnership with Emirates, and the airline says it will continue to comply with that requirement. “As part of our transformation program, Qantas is becoming more dynamic and more flexible in responding to market conditions" said Qantas International CEO Simon Hickey. "This has seen us take advantage of seasonal opportunities, like the Perth to Auckland service we started last summer. On the flip side, we’ll reduce flights at times of the year when demand naturally drops back."

Unless there was a set time by which you had to arrive in AKL, why wouldn't you choose EK over JQ (or QF, for that matter)? The gulf between EK's A380 and QF's B738 hard product is already wide as it is, let alone a further downgrade to JQ's A320.

 

[Limewood]

Just another example of Q loosing their way.

 

[ketsuzei]

Any idea how to find out which flights have been cut?

 

[clazman]

Isn't the problem caused by they only sell one way tickets to Australia?

last one there turn the lights off

 

[TomVexille]

Another case of handing over customers to the competition.

 

[Warks]

When are they going to announce the changing of the Qantas name to Jetstar?

 

[ketsuzei]

Looking at (say) AKL-MEL, they currently have flights leaving at 06:40, 13:10, and 21:40. Presumably it's the middle one they'd consider dispensable to business travellers?

 

[zainman]

why would anyone fly QF to AKL anyway when you can fly the EK A380

 

[CMA222]

Another case of handing over customers to the competition.

I have done the SYD-AUK-SYD trip this week in J on the Qantas (Jet Connect) service and do it regularly. The service level provided by Jet Connect is generally very good which makes up for the tired/elderly J seats with no leg room and for the limited IES. I will not fly DeathStar and EK does not fly when I need to so if my flights are affected it will be a downgrade to AirNZ for me.

 

[TomVexille]

I have done the SYD-AUK-SYD trip this week in J on the Qantas (Jet Connect) service and do it regularly. The service level provided by Jet Connect is generally very good which makes up for the tired/elderly J seats with no leg room and for the limited IES. I will not fly DeathStar and EK does not fly when I need to so if my flights are affected it will be a downgrade to AirNZ for me.

Case in point

 

[markis10]

why would anyone fly QF to AKL anyway when you can fly the EK A380

Because it may not fly when you need to go, ie night before to get a full day in after working in Australia.

 

[BD1959]

So, the "shining light" of Jetconnect's lower cost-base (versus QF mainline) is not as bright as we were previously led to believe ... ?? What *are* we to believe from QF Management?

It'll be interesting to understand how this is going to work. I can't see Jetconnect having the flexibility to ramp up and down services based on seasonality, so will they reduce the Jetconnect services and then augment them during Summer with Mainline? Re-introducing a supposed high cost-base and mix in the service levels .. one of the previous criticisms of QF's trans-tasman offering before Jetconnect supposedly came along and fixed it.

Geez, Qantas Management, don't you ever learn??

Regards,

BD

 

[TomVexille]

So, the "shining light" of Jetconnect's lower cost-base (versus QF mainline) is not as bright as we were previously led to believe ... ?? <snip>

Could that have to do with the current relative "strength" of the NZD vs the AUD

 

[Himeno]

So, the "shining light" of Jetconnect's lower cost-base (versus QF mainline) is not as bright as we were previously led to believe ... ?? What *are* we to believe from QF Management?

How many of the trans tasman flights are currently operated by QF mainline? I bet they are the ones that would be cut first.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

How many of the trans tasman flights are currently operated by QF mainline? I bet they are the ones that would be cut first.

AFAIK only Queenstown.

The others are jetconnect except when QF subs in temporarily when jetconnect has aircraft in maintenance etc

 

[TomVexille]

How many of the trans tasman flights are currently operated by QF mainline? I bet they are the ones that would be cut first.

I'm not sure there's any left

 

[TomVexille]

AFAIK only Queenstown.

The others are jetconnect except when QF subs in temporarily when jetconnect has aircraft in maintenance etc

That's right, forgot about ZQN.

I knew there was one route left out of SYD.

Although it appears that some days QF121/122 is mainline, and other days Jetconnect

 

[BD1959]

That's right, forgot about ZQN.

I knew there was one route left out of SYD.

Although it appears that some days QF121/122 is mainline, and other days Jetconnect

Just had a look at the QF Route Plan. All appear to be Jetconnect with the exception of the already seasonal PER-AKL and the Wed, Sat, Sun ZQN services; the Friday ZQN is also Jetconnect.

They ain't going to get those reductions just from Mainline!!

Regards,

BD

 

[anat0l]

I wonder if the regulatory bodies will actually take Qantas to task on this, i.e. their argument that replacing Qantas services with Jetstar does not constitute the maintaining of capacity on that market, thus violating conditions of approval of the QF/EK alliance.

Frankly this doesn't surprise me an awful lot. Even if VA start putting on J-equipped 737s, the new equilibrium is not exactly going to blast the Qantas Group off the planet on that particular market.

Jetstar must have a better reception in general compared to this board. Mentioning that someone should fly Jetstar on this forum, you'd think the punishment should be mandatory 5 years imprisonment. If it were that bad outside, Jetstar would not only be illegal, it'd be a violation of fundamental UN Human Rights.

 

[BD1959]

I wonder if the regulatory bodies will actually take Qantas to task on this, i.e. their argument that replacing Qantas services with Jetstar does not constitute the maintaining of capacity on that market, thus violating conditions of approval of the QF/EK alliance.

My immediate thought was "Yeah, QF would just claim JQ is part of the group ... no nett impact" however the ACCC approval itself stipulates separate quotas for QF and JQ.

BUT ... these figures drop significantly for the Northern Winter 14/15 - the period in which QF are looking to introduce this. So, I suppose as long as QF still maintain this mandated (reduced) number of seats, it wouldn't matter if JQ exceed their quota "See, ACCC, what a good corporate Citizen we at QF are !!"

Regards,

BD