Qantas - what will Coronavirus mean in the medium term?

[Max Samuels]

This has got serious; I am surprised that Qantas are taking 2 weeks to make the changes.
Close, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide international airports.
From Sydney just fly to Auckland, LA, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong.
And London from Perth but if UK is shut down could take a few weeks break.
Go hourly Melbourne-Sydney,, 2hourly between Brisbane and Sydney/Melbourne, once a day to other ports.
Maybe Virgin will stop completely.

Why not re-deploy the widebody aircraft on the MEL-SYD-BNE routes, so reduced frequency could still carry more people if necessary....

 

[jeza]

QAN under $3 now. Geez, how low will they go?

 

[dajop]

Why not re-deploy the widebody aircraft on the MEL-SYD-BNE routes, so reduced frequency could still carry more people if necessary....

Who knows. In a few weeks, Dash8-300’s and Rex’s Saab’s might be better suited to MEL-SYD-BNE.

Now Madam/Sir, you have a choice of booking your flight on a plane with 300 other passengers, or you can fly on our more exclusive 34 seat plane ....

 

[drron]

It's unprecedented everywhere. This is the first major global pandemic in the aviation era.

Though there was to be technical an Aviation industry in 1918.19 with the Spanish flu.

 

[HS-TQE]

Why not re-deploy the widebody aircraft on the MEL-SYD-BNE routes, so reduced frequency could still carry more people if necessary....

May not a 'good idea' depending on ongoing Australian Government requirements.

Not really sure if flying half full 789s on domestic routes with the middle seat empty in each economy row may be good thing financially (unless if the empty seats were subsidised by the Australian Government of course).

 

[Carrots]

I'm told here in Adelaide they've now cut part time staff are back to a minimum of 20hrs per week and casual staff are gone.

Expecting the other half to be cut shortly too given she's a contractor for them.

 

[Max Samuels]

May not a 'good idea' depending on ongoing Australian Government requirements.

Not really sure if flying half full 789s on domestic routes with the middle seat empty in each economy row may be good thing financially (unless if the empty seats were subsidised by the Australian Government of course).

But aren't the 787s magic and fuel efficient? If, as you suggest, the middle seat in Y has to be empty, surely that is a bigger problem on a 737 which really means they could only have 100 or so Y pax, whereas on the 787 there are more rows and they can have 6 pax each row?

In other news.... I flew into MEL yesterday 6pm.... this is how dead the pick-up queue was at T4....

 

[Must...Fly!]

Though there was to be technical an Aviation industry in 1918.19 with the Spanish flu.

Funny, I almost edited my post to read "globalised aviation era"

But yes you are obviously quite right.

 

[p--and--t]

Well if they provide cash refunds to everyone, what in theory could happen is that the first 1/3 (1/2?) of people cancelling get their cash refund and the remainder don’t get anything at all - as the airline goes bust, and employees will be substantially out of a job.

These are unprecedented times we probably all need to share the pain ...

Couldn't agree more. A few $$ from each cancellation fee will be sorely needed to help pay those staff who will no longer have a job.

 

[CaptJCool]

Fed Govt financial bail-out?

Or community financial support?

There will be many people in our community who will run out of cash while all this is going on (Ive many friends on superannuation (or centrelink) or jobs not affected by this who will get through but know of 2 friends who I reached out to offer some help in case they need it). We know from history and data about wages that transferring to welfare (Newstart waiting periods waived) because you are. losing a wage (or commissions think Flight centre staff) is a serious problem in paying rent or mortgages, and in no way does it cover wages that had been received. (Maybe Coles will employ 5,000 no pay staff from other sectors?)

QF retained credits is akin to the sporting clubs membership fees being held where no audiences are in attendance. Who should suffer the pain? You’re spot on that administrators and players must take a pay cut from their million $ salaries. I appreciate Joyce had already announced those measures and other large corporates should follow suit. The challenge of course is having used the credits to tide them over, what happens at the other end when these credits are used to make bookings. Again, I suppose QF have experience of this from the relatively recent shutdown.... as well, if the FF scheme keeps ticking over, and no real evidence to suggest it can’t given the bumper shopping going on at the supermarkets, there’s cash from having diversified beyond just flying planes.....

 

[Bundy Bear]

I think Qantas are being very generous with their cancel and put into credit.
But if you can wait until after 1 April then if the flight schedules don't work then you can get a refund.
Obviously Qantas are happy to let you cancel at the moment.

 

[Pushka]

This has got serious; I am surprised that Qantas are taking 2 weeks to make the changes.
Close, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Adelaide international airports.
From Sydney just fly to Auckland, LA, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong.
And London from Perth but if UK is shut down could take a few weeks break.
Go hourly Melbourne-Sydney,, 2hourly between Brisbane and Sydney/Melbourne, once a day to other ports.
Maybe Virgin will stop completely.

Qantas doesn’t fly internationally from Adelaide airport so that’s easy.

 

[Melburnian1]

Qantas doesn’t fly internationally from Adelaide airport so that’s easy.

Pushka, you know your local market for air travel, but despite Adelaide's relatively small size of c.1.5 million with minimal population growth, it's always surprised me that QFi either can't or has not wanted to 'make a go' of flying ADL - SIN or similar to connect to LHR etc. Yet a small number of Asian carriers serve ADL.

But that's rather academic at the moment.

 

[VPS]

Pushka, you know your local market for air travel, but despite Adelaide's relatively small size of c.1.5 million with minimal population growth, it's always surprised me that QFi either can't or has not wanted to 'make a go' of flying ADL - SIN or similar to connect to LHR etc. Yet a small number of Asian carriers serve ADL.

But that's rather academic at the moment.

please don't raise the blood pressure of the ADL people by bringing this up now

 

[HS-TQE]

Pushka, you know your local market for air travel, but despite Adelaide's relatively small size of c.1.5 million with minimal population growth, it's always surprised me that QFi either can't or has not wanted to 'make a go' of flying ADL - SIN or similar to connect to LHR etc. Yet a small number of Asian carriers serve ADL.

But that's rather academic at the moment.

Most of the Asian carriers serving ADL have hubs on the other end, whereas QF would've only been connecting to their LHR flight in addition to the O&D traffic.

JQ would've been the only other Australian alternative, taking into consideration that JQ could've feed the 3K hub at SIN. Problem is there's no suitable (narrowbody) plane, at the time, to fly ADL-SIN at a full planeload without load restrictions.

 

[CaptJCool]

Ah I miss QF81 and F lounging.....

 

[jase05]

please don't raise the blood pressure of the ADL people by bringing this up now

Yes, don’t get us started
SQ even run 2 daily’s for us at certain times of the year

 

[Max Samuels]

I just heard from a friend that QF have started laying off people today... can anyone confirm?

 

[Carrots]

I just heard from a friend that QF have started laying off people today... can anyone confirm?

Post #306

I would expect this has been repeated nationally.

 

[Pushka]

Pushka, you know your local market for air travel, but despite Adelaide's relatively small size of c.1.5 million with minimal population growth, it's always surprised me that QFi either can't or has not wanted to 'make a go' of flying ADL - SIN or similar to connect to LHR etc. Yet a small number of Asian carriers serve ADL.

But that's rather academic at the moment.

I think it happened about the time they got into, um, an Alliance with Emirates. And that didn't last long did it! Mind you EK treated us a whole lot better than Qantas ever did.