Qantas to expand Asia services and rejig US services from April 2016

[Dr Ralph]

What're the merits of DFW versus LAX?

Chalk and cheese. DFW every time you're headed anywhere further east.

 

[Melburnian1]

QF does not fly with its own metal to KUL. SIN is only 'just down the road or railway' but the omission in more recent years of Malaysia has always surprised me.

With a weakened MH that has reduced its flights to and from Oz and safety related questions about D7 and subsidiaries/ affiliates, is this a gap QF would ever fill?

I agree with the above proposals for Japan. Clearly a waste to have aircraft up there sitting around all day. Surely businessmen are not the only patrons of Oz - Japan QF flights. Many travellers like day flights because when one arrives home at say 2300 hours the comfort of one's own bed awaits. However for airlines there are typically fewer connections into the morning departure and off the evening arrival, and that can be an important source of patronage: look at Singapore.

Would QF ever consider making SYD - MNL daily (currently 5x week A333s, up from 4x week)? This is becoming a popular business route although leisure patronage is extremely high at Christmas, good in school holidays but poor during low season months like July and August. Or would QF start MEL - MNL to get in before 5J arrives on the route, despite historically lower patronage from MEL compared with SYD to Philippines?

One also has to consider bilateral seating capacity agreements with much of the above.

 

[Himeno]

QF does not fly with its own metal to KUL.

They do sometimes. ;P (I was once on QF32 which landed at KUL due to weather delays at SIN and remaining fuel load. Parked by the MH hangers. Just before MH got their A380s. Had bus loads of MH ground staff come out to take photos).
They could start service...
Australian carriers have 38600 seats/week available to Malaysia from the primary AU gateways and unlimited from elsewhere.

 

[Chrizztofa]

QF does not fly with its own metal to KUL. SIN is only 'just down the road or railway' but the omission in more recent years of Malaysia has always surprised me.

With a weakened MH that has reduced its flights to and from Oz and safety related questions about D7 and subsidiaries/ affiliates, is this a gap QF would ever fill?

I was under the impression that KUL was a low-yield market - I'd expect JQ to have a go at it first (they couldn't make it work a few years ago, but with the 787, who knows?). I imagine QF would prefer to codeshare with MH (although whether they would right now, given MH's predicament, is another question).

As for new routes I'm not sure a 3x weekly PER-HKG could work - especially for business travellers against CX at 10 weekly? From a product consistency point of view it would be nice if they took the 747 off MEL-HKG (I know they've just announced it!), reallocated it to make SFO/JNB daily and used the 330 to make MEL-HKG 10x weekly (if they can get the slots).

 

[moa999]

I was under the impression that KUL was a low-yield market - I'd expect JQ to have a go at it first (they couldn't make it work a few years ago, but with the 787, who knows?). I imagine QF would prefer to codeshare with MH (although whether they would right now, given MH's predicament, is another question).
.

Tend to agree re QF but equally don't think JQ could get anywhere near the cost base of D7 (Air Asia X). TZ (Singapore based Scoot) maybe but not a Malaysian LCC.

Would also not be surprised to see OD (Malindo and more of a hybrid than LCC that's 49% Lion Indonesia) adding international routes as well in the future

 

[Awesom Andy]

I agree with the above proposals for Japan. Clearly a waste to have aircraft up there sitting around all day. Surely businessmen are not the only patrons of Oz - Japan QF flights.

Although I think they're getting good yields for J. Otherwise, they would've deployed the 744 elsewhere and use an A330 for the SYD-TYO route instead.

I was under the impression that KUL was a low-yield market - I'd expect JQ to have a go at it first (they couldn't make it work a few years ago, but with the 787, who knows?).

Tend to agree re QF but equally don't think JQ could get anywhere near the cost base of D7 (Air Asia X). TZ (Singapore based Scoot) maybe but not a Malaysian LCC.

Would also not be surprised to see OD (Malindo and more of a hybrid than LCC that's 49% Lion Indonesia) adding international routes as well in the future

Definitely. Either there is explosive growth for KUL, or JQ would be the first one to have a go at. And since JQ isn't going to have cost leadership, it's unlikely anything will happen here at all.

Not sure when Malindo will be picking up their 787s or A330s. Although I would imagine that North Asia destinations such as Tokyo would be more attractive. The QF 747 has about twice the number of J seats than the A330, but only about the same Y seats (plus a handful of Y+).

 

[Mattg]

Although I think they're getting good yields for J. Otherwise, they would've deployed the 744 elsewhere and use an A330 for the SYD-TYO route instead.

Exactly. The 747 has almost the same number of seats as an A333 in economy, but about double the number of J seats and a PE cabin as well. This clearly works well for them as the premium cabins always seem pretty full on this flight.

 

[Spongbob]

Exactly. The 747 has almost the same number of seats as an A333 in economy, but about double the number of J seats and a PE cabin as well. This clearly works well for them as the premium cabins always seem pretty full on this flight.

A few of the J and PE seat occupants are most likely upgrades.

 

[Awesom Andy]

A few of the J and PE seat occupants are most likely upgrades.

They're still filling it though, which is the important part. They had a 744/A333 combination doing the SYD-SIN runs for a while, but reverted back to 2x A333/A332 after some time so it didn't seem to work as well in that market.

 

[Himeno]

It's time to play the guessing game again folks! QF is rumoured to be adding a new Asian A330 route/destination soon, due to start some time after October. Anyone know more?

Looks like it's HKG
Qantas to run double daily flights to Hong Kong - Australian Business Traveller

 

[Awesom Andy]

Looks like it's HKG
Qantas to run double daily flights to Hong Kong - Australian Business Traveller

I wonder how they managed to get their slots, given the early evening has been full in HKG for about a couple of years. And with QF117/118 and 127/128 departing just a few minutes apart, especially on Sat, hopefully pax won't get confused which plane to go to.

 

[docjames]

Good that they've grown service, but shame they couldn't spread the times apart a little further. Plus the varying departure times on 117/118 could catch a few out. And agree, close numbers always increase the chance of errors.

 

[Awesom Andy]

Plus the varying departure times on 117/118 could catch a few out.

I wonder if this is slot related or fleet related?

 

[Flyerqf]

Today's (Sat) QF18 will be the final and tomorrow the last QF17.

From Monday there is only one daily SYD-LAX-SYD being QF11/12.

 

[dajop]

Actually I guess we were all wrong with QF set to announce MEL-SIN going x10 weekly, with a new QF37/38 afternoon service departing at 16:05 arriving in SIN at 22:15, the return QF38 service departs SIN at 23:35, arriving back to MEL at 09:00.

Well we're now a month into the new services, and I'm wondering how long they will last. Perhaps the A380 from EK is affecting loads. I've taken 38, and my mum has now taken both 37 & 38 ($500 fare) and all flights came complete with "lie flat economy beds" (i.e. we had four seats for one passengers), as did many others on those flights.. Although encouragingly J class was quite full. I think on my flight there was only 1 or 2 empty J seats, but only 114 pax on board the 333.

 

[Awesom Andy]

Well we're now a month into the new services, and I'm wondering how long they will last. Perhaps the A380 from EK is affecting loads. I've taken 38, and my mum has now taken both 37 & 38 ($500 fare) and all flights came complete with "lie flat economy beds" (i.e. we had four seats for one passengers), as did many others on those flights.. Although encouragingly J class was quite full. I think on my flight there was only 1 or 2 empty J seats, but only 114 pax on board the 333.

Sounds like they would do well to scrap 37/38 and replace 35/36 with a 744.

 

[dajop]

Sounds like they would do well to scrap 37/38 and replace 35/36 with a 744.

It does. Or market 37/8 better at the SG end, both flights are well suited to SIN originating pax (9 am arrival much better for getting to hotel than 5am arrival, and 3:50pm departure also allows a good half day in MEL). The absence of decent marketing in SG seems to be rather odd at times, compared to just about every other airline my email has ever come near !

 

[Awesom Andy]

It does. Or market 37/8 better at the SG end, both flights are well suited to SIN originating pax (9 am arrival much better for getting to hotel than 5am arrival, and 3:50pm departure also allows a good half day in MEL). The absence of decent marketing in SG seems to be rather odd at times, compared to just about every other airline my email has ever come near !

They had a campaign not long ago for the new A330 seats. Took out the decorations at the small Orchard MRT tunnel near ION as well. Although if my colleagues are to judge, they still seem to relate QF to exploding engines (QF32) and poor services, and they would either save money with Scoot, or pay more with SQ.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

May is a quiet month all round for everyone. They are looking a lot busier in June.

 

[Mattg]

I wonder if the poor initial loads on QF37/38 are due to the fact it's a new route? i.e. more people might have been booked on QF35/36 before the new route was announced and been unable to change? (I was booked on QF127/128 last week, booked before the supplmentary QF117/118 service was announced, but when I tried to change one of my flights to the more lightly loaded new service, was told I would have to pay a change fee etc.)

If J is full and Y half-empty, it does sound like an upgrade of QF35/36 to a 747 would be a better option than a second A333 flight. The 747 has roughly the same number of Y seats as an A330, but twice as many J seats and a PE cabin.