The demise of Qantas international flights

[fairbasa]

I use a TA myself, but yes, AY have been very well priced this year, including connections on QF metal from Oz to Asia and back. The inta-Europe leg is dirt cheap also when bundled up with it.

Whilst AY aren't maybe the most thrilling carrier and their planes need a bit of freshening (Will come with the A350s), I continuously fly them to Europe because I get the benefits of OW but much quicker and better connections in HEL. They pride themselves on their speedy connections and punctuality. With this whole EK/QF partnership being a total fizzer to me (No SC earn on EK flight codes but QF flight codes too expensive for same seats) AY are the logical choice! Not to mention HEL is a nice place to spend a couple of days.

 

[Timba-Jet]

Pragmatically, the view that if a route was clearly profitable for QF then QF would already be in there swinging, is probably true.

What I would like to see QF do or take a calculated risks on are creative routing to Maximise fleet usage.
PER-SIN-HKG/BKK
LAX-YVR maybe, if direct YVR is not possible for whatever reason.

Also I still can't fathom how NZ can make a direct PER-AKL work but QF can't.

 

[dajop]

PrAlso I still can't fathom how NZ can make a direct PER-AKL work but QF can't.

Probably because QF aren't on the route!

But NZ is flying from PER to it's hub and can connect people through to a range of destinations (I assume it can, not sure of the timing), whereas QF would largely be just carrying PER-AKL traffic (with some regional WA connections).

 

[Mattg]

I also don't see AB code sharing with QF, ever. Their partner for Australia flights is EY - I took several AB/HG flights last month, and they all played a commercial on the drop down screens for their EY alliance. This commercial also features VA.

It would appear you've called this very accurately, considering today's announcement that AB and VA will codeshare on each other's flights. This gives VA a distinct advantage on flights to Berlin, as well as other German/European destinations. Will be interesting to see QF's response.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ity/virgin-australian-hooks-up-air-52208.html

As an aside, it does seem somewhat messy as QF and VA now both have links with the airline.

 

[FrankC]

It would appear you've called this very accurately, considering today's announcement that AB and VA will codeshare on each other's flights. This gives VA a distinct advantage on flights to Berlin, as well as other German/European destinations. Will be interesting to see QF's response.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....ity/virgin-australian-hooks-up-air-52208.html

As an aside, it does seem somewhat messy as QF and VA now both have links with the airline.

I wonder if someone from here will join up AB and start earning points from both VA & QF

 

[Berlin]

Glad to see that I'm not the only one who would love a Qantas connection between my old home Berlin and my current home in Australia I'm still having my hopes up for this to happen at some point but first they finally need to sort that airport debacle over there...

 

[JohnK]

I cannot see QF51/QF52 BNE-SIN and vv remaining a daily service for very long.

Perhaps flying at a bad time but the load earlier this week was extremely poor.

 

[Isochronous]

TXL was supposed to open ages ago though, and it is still plagued by problems. Who knows when it finally gets up and running - frankly delays will help QF as it gives them time to refresh the A330 product.

 

[JohnK]

I'd like to see actual Qantas flights from Adelaide to anywhere.
Sure, we have QF domestic but when it comes to international flights, Adelaide is like the long lost city of the Incas!

I think my suggestion of ADL-PER-SIN leaving ADL around noon and returning back to PER around 2:00am-3:00am and ADL around 6:00am has some merit but is not popular with those wanting direct flights.

Perhaps it can alternate ADL-PER-SIN-ADL-PER on some days and PER-ADL-SIN-PER-ADL on other days and vv. That way you can still organise a direct flight there and back if you have some flexibility in dates.

 

[Daver6]

TXL was supposed to open ages ago though, and it is still plagued by problems. Who knows when it finally gets up and running - frankly delays will help QF as it gives them time to refresh the A330 product.

Probably have the same team working on TXL as they do working on the A380 facilities at PER

 

[Economy_Gold]

TXL was supposed to open ages ago though, and it is still plagued by problems. Who knows when it finally gets up and running - frankly delays will help QF as it gives them time to refresh the A330 product.

Just one correction: TXL is the airport code for the old Berlin Tegel airport, the new airport will get the IATA-coder BER

And by the way, you are right that QF cannot compete (even on this possible route) without refreshing the A330 product first.

 

[Economy_Gold]

I wonder if someone from here will join up AB and start earning points from both VA & QF

If I would now fly AB Y, with my QF Platinum card I can access the AB and Oneworld lounges, but not their "exclusive waiting area".
But I fly AB Y with my Virgin Platinum card I can access the AB lounges and their "exclusive waiting area", but not other Oneworld lounges.

And the same applies if I would be Gold with either QF or Virgin.
That will lead to a few nice confusions...

 

[bosox76]

+1 for direct MEL/SYD-YVR flights. Would love to be able to avoid LAX going to YVR. Would be happy enough to go MEL-SFO-YVR though

 

[docjames]

//QFi utopia on//

I'd love to see QF take the 789s they have on order and create a mini-hub in DXB to serve "lesser" ports in Europe, as well as "lesser" Australian ports as it seems to be the aircraft with the right size/distance combination for QFi. The A380 really only works to LAX/LHR/SYD/MEL at this stage (is being deployed to HKG too I know).

Would open up possibilities like

BNE-DXB-CDG
PER-DXB-BER/TXL
ADL-DXB-MAD

DXB-DUB
DXB-Moscow
DXB-Rome
DXB-ATH

As the 789s arrived they could always run some of these routes 4/week and try and build a market.

They could then have a couple of 789s that didn't through connect to Aus (or they could have two flights with one connecting to an EK bank of flights allowing onward connections on EK and thus giving multiple departure times from SYD/MEL) etc

By focusing on the 789 they would have flexibility in fleet utilisation too whereas the 380 is really inflexible.

With of course pax able to cross over in DXB and connect to preferred destination.

So they'd have a bank of flights arriving to DXB from SYD (2-3/day), MEL (2-3/day), BNE (1-2/day), ADL (4/wk), PER (daily) and then onwards banks to the above.

I hope i've explained that correctly.


Going ever further left field, the east coast of the US becomes accessible from DXB (JFK/BOS).


Going the other way, YVR becomes more plausible from SYD or BNE, DFW is still an issue (although seems to have grown for the 744ER / 380 in the future), SFO could be viable again (less seats to fill), MEX could even be possible (inbound).

 

[Isochronous]

//QFi utopia on//

I'd love to see QF take the 789s they have on order and create a mini-hub in DXB to serve "lesser" ports in Europe, as well as "lesser" Australian ports as it seems to be the aircraft with the right size/distance combination for QFi. The A380 really only works to LAX/LHR/SYD/MEL at this stage (is being deployed to HKG too I know).

Would open up possibilities like

BNE-DXB-CDG
PER-DXB-BER/TXL
ADL-DXB-MAD

DXB-DUB
DXB-Moscow
DXB-Rome
DXB-ATH

As the 789s arrived they could always run some of these routes 4/week and try and build a market.

They could then have a couple of 789s that didn't through connect to Aus (or they could have two flights with one connecting to an EK bank of flights allowing onward connections on EK and thus giving multiple departure times from SYD/MEL) etc

By focusing on the 789 they would have flexibility in fleet utilisation too whereas the 380 is really inflexible.

With of course pax able to cross over in DXB and connect to preferred destination.

So they'd have a bank of flights arriving to DXB from SYD (2-3/day), MEL (2-3/day), BNE (1-2/day), ADL (4/wk), PER (daily) and then onwards banks to the above.

I hope i've explained that correctly.


Going ever further left field, the east coast of the US becomes accessible from DXB (JFK/BOS).


Going the other way, YVR becomes more plausible from SYD or BNE, DFW is still an issue (although seems to have grown for the 744ER / 380 in the future), SFO could be viable again (less seats to fill), MEX could even be possible (inbound).

I like your thinking. I'd also like to see QF get back into the NZ-US market and compete with the Air NZ monopoly.

 

[moa999]

But why would qf do the on flights when they can just hand over pax to EK, ignoring slot restrictions LHR or political issues Germany

 

[docjames]

But why would qf do the on flights when they can just hand over pax to EK, ignoring slot restrictions LHR or political issues Germany

One would hope that QF carrying pax on QF could make more money than handing pax over to EK. With their 744 fleet, EK were killing them (cant beat em join em) so had to go down this route to stem the losses.

If not possible with new a/c, they may as well give up.

 

[Isochronous]

QF still has 2 slots at LHR under lease to BA. How long does the BA lease last and I wonder what their future plans for those slots are.

 

[Melburnian1]

I cannot see QF51/QF52 BNE-SIN and vv remaining a daily service for very long.

Perhaps flying at a bad time but the load earlier this week was extremely poor.

JohnK, what do you define as 'poor'?

150, 100, 50 or 30 pax? What was your estimate of pax in each class?

 

[Isochronous]

JohnK, what do you define as 'poor'?

150, 100, 50 or 30 pax? What was your estimate of pax in each class?

The big question is if J is full. If J is full, then it will stay most likely.