Qantas to fly to Delhi from Sydney & Melbourne

[snabbu]

The press release confirms it will be A330s. SYD-DRW-DEL on the outbound, DEL-SYD non-stop on the return.

Excellent. Hopefully the SYD-DRW is bookable as a domestic ticket with access to the FL. Been a while.

 

[Rangalad]

Excellent. Hopefully the SYD-DRW is bookable as a domestic ticket with access to the FL. Been a while.

Not at the moment.
TMC booked a mate on QF1 SYD/DRW.
Has been rebooked the following morning on a domestic flight.

 

[Mr H]

Shouldn't that be smoggy?

No - foggy. It is a thing in DEL.

 

[jb747]

Delhi is a bit like Chicago. It’s been talked about, and going to happen, for years.

 

[jase05]

Some good connections from DEL so definitely has piqued my interest as a stop over destination dependant on border restrictions obviously. Has been a few years since our last travels to India so definitely keen to head back there one day

 

[justinbrett]

It's not a well timed flight - 6am departure from SYD means no domestic connections outbound - and doesn't connect with the BA flights to LHR.

 

[jase05]

It's not a well timed flight - 6am departure from SYD means no domestic connections outbound - and doesn't connect with the BA flights to LHR.

Yeah domestic timing isn’t great, from ADL I would have to spend a night in SYD or in DRW. Obviously depending on border restrictions I’m happy to spend some time in DEL and then head to the UK via the ME. I don’t mind multiple transits it’s just a matter of when they will be allowed

 

[dajop]

In the several years before the EK deal there used to be a through flight number from BNE-BOM via SIN several days a week that connected with the flights from MEL, SYD, ADL and PER. From memory the actual aircraft was the one from ADL.

After the EK deal these were replaced by codeshares on Jet. Then the CX relationship was expanded to allow codeshares to India via HKG. Obviously Jet is gone and the CX codeshares are still problematic. So own metal makes a lot of sense.

 

[Mattg]

It's not a well timed flight - 6am departure from SYD means no domestic connections outbound - and doesn't connect with the BA flights to LHR.

Agree about the flights not connecting with BA, although I don't think it's in Qantas' interest to redirect passengers flying to the UK via DEL when QF can sell them a direct DRW-LHR flight?

Theoretically, there may be some connections available from other cities to DEL via DRW - although the DRW-DEL leg also leaves before most of the QF domestic flights arrive in DRW.

 

[justinbrett]

Agree about the flights not connecting with BA, although I don't think it's in Qantas' interest to redirect passengers flying to the UK via DEL when QF can sell them a direct DRW-LHR flight?

Theoretically, there may be some connections available from other cities to DEL via DRW - although the DRW-DEL leg also leaves before most of the QF domestic flights arrive in DRW.

Those flights would have to leave well before 0600 in the case of ADL/BNE/PER and at 0600 for MEL so I very much doubt they'd add extra domestic flight just to connect to a oneway flight.

The BA connection just adds a few extra seats to the flight to make its business case stronger. There's no way this route is going to survive long term just with VFR - especially being light on premium pax.

 

[Mattg]

Those flights would have to leave well before 0600 in the case of ADL/BNE/PER and at 0600 for MEL so I very much doubt they'd add extra domestic flight just to connect to a oneway flight.

Yeah, I take your point. I was thinking more of connections from places like ASP or CNS, but even the morning ASP-DRW flight arrives too late. I wonder if their schedule was constrained by the availability of slots at DEL?

 

[Lynda2475]

There is a huge Indian population in Sydney, so even though not timed well for connections, dont think they will have too much trouble selling 3 flights a week to NSW residents looking to do family reunion, business and holiday trips.

 

[justinbrett]

There is a huge Indian population in Sydney, so even though not timed well for connections, dont think they will have too much trouble selling 3 flights a week to NSW residents looking to do family reunion, business and holiday trips.

At the moment yes, but eventually they probably will have trouble. And also there's a huge Indian population in most Australian cities, especially Melbourne.

QF had endless troubles trying to get SYD-BOM to work and never could for more than a few years. As I think someone said upthread many of those pax are happy to connect to get a cheaper fare.

Yeah, I take your point. I was thinking more of connections from places like ASP or CNS, but even the morning ASP-DRW flight arrives too late. I wonder if their schedule was constrained by the availability of slots at DEL?

But not too sure Alice Springs has a huge Indian community

 

[jase05]

Those flights would have to leave well before 0600 in the case of ADL/BNE/PER and at 0600 for MEL so I very much doubt they'd add extra domestic flight just to connect to a oneway flight.

The BA connection just adds a few extra seats to the flight to make its business case stronger. There's no way this route is going to survive long term just with VFR - especially being light on premium pax.

Everyone is different but for me personally I wouldn’t mind flying up to DRW the day before and spending a night there or catching a evening flight to SYD and spending a night there. I probably would prefer to catch it from SYD as you get the J class in the A330 all the way rather than the 737 J class ADL-DRW

 

[Mattg]

But not too sure Alice Springs has a huge Indian community

Indeed. I was just thinking of places in closer proximity (relatively speaking) to Darwin.

I agree the timing needs work. There are probably some limitations here that we don't know about (e.g. aircraft availability or slot availability at DEL) but you would think a later departure time would work better for connections via both SYD and DRW.

 

[jase05]

Will definitely be interesting to see if the route is extended past the current March schedule.

 

[daft009]

Will definitely be interesting to see if the route is extended past the current March schedule.

I doubt it. I know of people who would fly Emirates to India as it was a little cheaper than Malaysian or SQ even though they would reach quicker

 

[flydoc]

But not too sure Alice Springs has a huge Indian community

Per capita: actually surprisingly high. But the raw numbers that QF are after -no. They’d probably fill an A330 if all travelled together though

 

[CaptJCool]

That’s 455,000 of 25,000,000. So yea not necessarily sufficient for a daily run

of which 2016 QuickStats Country of Birth
3,595 in all of NT

 

[SeatBackForward]

I'll call it. This routing will not exist at this time in 2022.