Any insights about this
@Melburnian1 ? Thanks
To put the quote into context, that was Adelaide-based Pushka complaining about Bali flights with Jetstar.
On 15 July 2022, QF's spin doctors said this in a media release:
"...The issues that all airlines are facing now with delayed flights and cancellations are because of the spike in COVID throughout the community leading to higher sickness levels from crew, as well as the economy and industry wide tight labour market..."
Is it 'all airlines?'
To and from Oz, I don't see SQ, EK or others cancelling flights. NZ in contrast has been affected at times and has publicly so admitted.
Domestically, while a far smaller airline with major focus on small rural markets, as it only has a tint B738 fleet, ZL isn't cancelling many flights (except perhaps when the pilots take industrial action as recently has been the case).
On 24 June 2022, QF stated in another spin doctor effort:
Adjusting capacity in response to fuel prices
"The Qantas Group is adjusting its domestic capacity levels for much of FY23 to assist with the recovery of sustained high fuel prices.
For July and August, an additional 5 percentage points of capacity will be removed on top of the 10 per cent announced in May. This total 15 per cent cut will also be applied to September. A cut of 10 percentage points will be applied to schedules from October through to the end of March 2023..."
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Quickstatus, I can only assume that QF is seeing demand drop further, especially for destinations such as DPS given the huge media focus on the possibility of foot-and-mouth disease being imported into Australia, which would be terrible for our livestock subsectors including dairy, beef, pig raising and others.
My guess is many have taken on board the Federal Liberal/Nationals Opposition's call for flights to and from Indonesia to be banned. Travellers may be nervous about the possibility of this occurring and being stranded.
I get the impression that the Federal government has yet to appreciate the damage FMD as it's abbreviated to could do to Oz's 'clean and green' reputation, though true that banning flights would be a big step. We did however do it from mainland China in February 2020 re the latest coronavirus.
