Qantas international routes not resumed

[yachty]

BA aren't even flying to BKK. Tourism still nowhere near recovered since Covid.

That's probably more of a BA thing... they haven't gone back to a lot of places. Seems Thai tourism has recovered pretty well excluding China.

PER-NRT
PER-HKG

Are 2 that got the chop prior to covid.

PER-HKG hasn't run for at least 10 years now... back in the dark days of everything getting the chop. When did PER-NRT run last? I can't find anything about it.

 

[jrfsp]

PER-HKG hasn't run for at least 10 years now... back in the dark days of everything getting the chop. When did PER-NRT run last? I can't find anything about it.

Probably 20+ years ago, was a 767 route (like HKG)

 

[justinbrett]

That's probably more of a BA thing... they haven't gone back to a lot of places. Seems Thai tourism has recovered pretty well excluding China.


PER-HKG hasn't run for at least 10 years now... back in the dark days of everything getting the chop. When did PER-NRT run last? I can't find anything about it.

BA said it's not a money maker. That will be the same deal with an extra QF service.

Thailand Tourist Arrivals - September 2023 Data - 1997-2022 Historical

Tourist Arrivals in Thailand decreased to 2130596 in September from 2468042 in August of 2023. This page provides - Thailand Tourist Arrivals - actual values, historical data, forecast, chart, statistics, economic calendar and news.

tradingeconomics.com

 

[Flyfrequently]

They should introduce PER-HKG, MEL-BKK, and PER-JNB.

Agree definitely @anyonebutqantas , MEL-BKK !

 

[yachty]

BA said it's not a money maker. That will be the same deal with an extra QF service.

View attachment 351709

I never said QF should add an extra service... and not much of an equivalence between what's profitable for BA and what is/isn't for QF. Good stuff tho.

 

[justinbrett]

I never said QF should add an extra service... and not much of an equivalence between what's profitable for BA and what is/isn't for QF. Good stuff tho.

It was the context of my comment - that I don't think QF will be adding services until at least tourist numbers return to pre-covid, if at all.

QF probably has a higher number of business travellers than BA given Thailand is in our neck of the woods, but it's still a leisure heavy destination.

 

[anyonebutqantas]

The utter lack of full service carriers between Australia and Thailand means there is opportunity - TG doesn't even operate to Australia much anymore. QF could definitely fill MEL-BKK easily.

 

[Himeno]

I feel KIX not being flown is an interesting choice.

Instead of doing double daily SYD <> HND. I could see then instead having more success doing SYD <> HND, SYD <> KIX and a MEL <> HND.

If they want to keep the SYD <> HND overnight in both directions, they can supplement with MEL being dayflight both directions.

They started the SYD-KIX route in order to use the aircraft that wasn't going to one of the proposed PER international routes during their little fight with the airport.
I'd like the KIX flight back as well.

 

[Himeno]

That's probably more of a BA thing... they haven't gone back to a lot of places. Seems Thai tourism has recovered pretty well excluding China.


PER-HKG hasn't run for at least 10 years now... back in the dark days of everything getting the chop. When did PER-NRT run last? I can't find anything about it.

They canned the PER-NRT route not long after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake

 

[justinbrett]

The utter lack of full service carriers between Australia and Thailand means there is opportunity - TG doesn't even operate to Australia much anymore. QF could definitely fill MEL-BKK easily.

Also probably indicates a reason why there’s all these gaps in various markets to/from Thailand

 

[Rangalad]

The utter lack of full service carriers between Australia and Thailand means there is opportunity - TG doesn't even operate to Australia much anymore. QF could definitely fill MEL-BKK easily.

TG operates twice daily to MEL, daily to SYD.

 

[dajop]

The utter lack of full service carriers between Australia and Thailand means there is opportunity - TG doesn't even operate to Australia much anymore. QF could definitely fill MEL-BKK easily.

Filling the flight isn't the problem. Filling it at an acceptable level of profit might be, QF tend to be premium heavy, and they need to fill the business class seats with higher margin business traffic and not just holiday traffic. They might come back one day if they have enough/right configured aircraft, but given that it's been almost 20 years, and they have served MEL-BKK with the last what 15 years or so with Jetstar, I'm not sure they are in any hurry to bring it back. When it was last served, IIRC it flew on to FCO I think, intersecting with QF1 (SYD-BKK-LHR) (although could be wrong).

Also adding MEL-BKK might undermine SYD-BKK and MEL-SIN services (QF do offer MEL-SIN-BKK via QF/3K as well as the SYD option).

In the meantime, whilst there aren't that many direct Australia-Thailand services, it is a competitive market for lower fare leisure travel with single stops, between SQ, Scoot, MH, Air Asia, Jetstar via SIN, and probably now Vietjet, Batik etc as well.

 

[Sprucegoose]

QF could definitely fill MEL-BKK easily.

On what basis do you make this statement? A full-paid J cabin is different to a full Y cabin. I see BKK more as a leisure than a business destination.

Your insights would be appreciated.

 

[sudoer]

In addition to MEL-CGK (mentioned above), a few other new routes are:

SYD-ICN
SYD-TBU
BNE-WLG
BNE-HIR

They started the SYD-KIX route in order to use the aircraft that wasn't going to one of the proposed PER international routes during their little fight with the airport.
I'd like the KIX flight back as well.

KIX is great for those with a Kansai/Chubu final destination, but not great for domestic connections (without a painful transfer to ITM anyway) and a coughpy departure experience for premium/status pax.

 

[aus_flyer]

I think BNE-ORD does belong on the list. It would have started if covid didn’t happen. I was booked and ready to go.

 

[williamsf1]

The utter lack of full service carriers between Australia and Thailand means there is opportunity - TG doesn't even operate to Australia much anymore. QF could definitely fill MEL-BKK easily.

BKK is more a leisure market .. JQ fits that very well

 

[encryptededdy]

The utter lack of full service carriers between Australia and Thailand means there is opportunity

Only if people want full service carriers though. If most of the traffic want the cheapest price, then more LCCs is the way to go.

 

[SYD]

BKK is more a leisure market .. JQ fits that very well

HNL is a leisure market and it’s about to be up-gauged to 2x B787 (QF and JQ).

From memory, even SYD-BKK was only the QF1/2 B744 service onto/from LHR prior to the A380s via DXB and now SIN. Maybe seasonal periods where there was double daily?

 

[justinbrett]

HNL is a leisure market and it’s about to be up-gauged to 2x B787 (QF and JQ).

From memory, even SYD-BKK was only the QF1/2 B744 service onto/from LHR prior to the A380s via DXB and now SIN. Maybe seasonal periods where there was double daily?

It's a leisure market but more on the expensive honeymoon end of leisure - not the backpackers going to SE Asia end.

J sells very well on QF103/4. IMO harder to get an upgrade than on the LAX routes.

 

[dajop]

HNL is a leisure market and it’s about to be up-gauged to 2x B787 (QF and JQ).

In addition there isn’t as much competition to HNL, it’s HA, JQ and QF. NZ and FJ aren’t serious competitors with the timing of their layovers. Yet to BKK there is TG (double daily out of MEL), SQ have 3 daily flights between MEL/SYD and SIN that have BKK with connections and there others.

Actually in the context of a discussion comparing nonstops MEL/BKK to HNL it’s also noteworthy there is no full service carrier - only JQ - flying MEL-HNL.