But you made the point that airlines can offer that service in Asia because labour costs are lower. I'm just not sure they're $500 lower - per passenger - for a two hour flight?
Again though you CAN NOT EQUATE! Either pricing or product.
SIN-BKK has a ton of carrier competing in the space, plus many connecting flights and passengers. It's way more than any oz domestic city pair in terms of competition, demand and supply. Plus it's not just labour costs that are lower, but food, handling and all the rest plus many of these airlines are stated owned, or majority owned (eg: SQ, TG).
What is QF's competition on MEL-BNE or ADL-SYD? VA.
The lack of competition(in relative terms) and the smaller market and higher costs dictate both the pricing and service offered.
Remember, very flew people actually pay the full sticker price for domestic J. If they do it's either comporate discount driven or (relatively small numbers of) well heeled pax on leisure travel. Asia possibly has a different pax and yield mix (but I have nothing concrete to back that up just a thought).
Antother thing I have noticed is that it seems that QF treat domestic catering as basically a snack on short-medium haul sectors (eg <3h) whereas other airlines, specially in Asia, treat it as the full servic deal and even if you're connecting, or just on that sector, you're getting a full meal. I think QF has a different philisophy here - that you'll eat in the lounge, or elsewhere and on board is just to prop you up.
Remember the same distance sectors in europe would prob get similar to QF (at least in my experiences on airlines like BA and AY) and in the US it's possible to go 2 hours and maybe get a packet of chips and a coke in "F"
Again you just can't price a sector of a similar length in another part of trhe world and equate it to one in oz. It's just not realistic or relevant imho. Airlines charge what the market will support, or they feel it will. And all markets are different in so many ways.
IMHO.
