JQ gives AVV 8 months to prove themselves or they're out.

[smit0847]

JETSTAR’S future at Avalon Airport is in jeopardy, again.

Six months after accepting a $5.5 million taxpayer bailout to stay at the airport, Jetstar Australia and New Zealand CEO David Hall this week delivered a use-it-or-lose it message to Geelong, admitting the discount carrier might have less than a year left at Avalon.

In a frank address to Geelong business leaders this week, Mr Hall said Avalon’s sole passenger service would “remain fundamentally unsustainable” unless Geelong travellers backed the company and other carriers were recruited to the airport.

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au...ve-avalons-worth/story-fnjuhovy-1226957770178


Regardless of whether Melbourne should have a second airport it's pretty clear to me what AVV need to do to survive - entice non-alliance intl LCCs away from MEL (Air Asia, Royal Brunei JQi etc) and try and get new LCCs to come to Melbourne, launching from AVV, not MEL (Scoot, Cebu Pacific etc). People catching LCCs dont need the sort of facilities like lounge access that only the major airports have (nor do they need feeder options as they're not linked to any other airline), and offering very low landing fees would help the LCCs bring their costs down to a point where its cheaper to fly out of AVV than MEL. People connecting on non-linked itineraires would then be forced to used the struggling JQ domestic options.

I don't waiting and hoping that Geelong residents use AVV for MEL-SYD is going to save the airport.

 

[dajop]

It's a catch 22. When AVV started I think it may have worked, but then MEL started doing things to make it more attractive to LCC's and then it sort of killed AVV. I wonder what would happen to MEL fees if AVV stopped being a commercial airport.

Also they should just rebrand it as Geelong Airport, and drop parking prices commensurate with the cost of parking in a cow paddock near a sewage farm, not major airport usual airport extortion rates. (they used to be much lower when AVV first started). $69 for a 3 day parking over weekend is too much.

Oh, and maybe it would be more attractive if the aircraft had a red kangaroo on their tail!

 

[markis10]

I have parents in the area and their complaint is the times of the JQ flights, it seems many are timed to operate when they dont have elsewhere to go.

 

[whatmeworry]

It's a catch 22. When AVV started I think it may have worked, but then MEL started doing things to make it more attractive to LCC's and then it sort of killed AVV. I wonder what would happen to MEL fees if AVV stopped being a commercial airport.

Also they should just rebrand it as Geelong Airport, and drop parking prices commensurate with the cost of parking in a cow paddock near a sewage farm, not major airport usual airport extortion rates. (they used to be much lower when AVV first started). $69 for a 3 day parking over weekend is too much.

Oh, and maybe it would be more attractive if the aircraft had a red kangaroo on their tail!

Didn't they have free parking at AVV at the start?

 

[VHOEJ]

Easy JQ = move all your flights from MEL to AVV. You have shot yourselves in the foot by doing that - early on that is why AVV was working.

It will go after the Avalon Airshow (Feb/Mar next year).

 

[harvyk]

Easy JQ = move all your flights from MEL to AVV. You have shot yourselves in the foot by doing that - early on that is why AVV was working.

It will go after the Avalon Airshow (Feb/Mar next year).

It might have been working for AVV early on, but I doubt it was working for JQ. They where against DJ back in those days, and whilst JQ where taking ppl quite a distance from MEL CBD, DJ was dropping them off virtually in the city by comparison, with the added advantage of an international terminal (to act as a feeder) just next door.

Is it any wonder that JQ decided to move their flag to MEL?

 

[dajop]

It might have been working for AVV early on, but I doubt it was working for JQ. They where against DJ back in those days, and whilst JQ where taking ppl quite a distance from MEL CBD, DJ was dropping them off virtually in the city by comparison, with the added advantage of an international terminal (to act as a feeder) just next door.

To be fair though in the "early days" JQ only flew SYD & BNE services from AVV. All other inaugural JQ services (HBA, LST, OOL, MCY etc) started and have always flown to/from MEL. There was a brief period where JQ operated ADL & PER services from AVV and then transferred them to MEL, around the same time they started up BNE/SYD services from MEL. Originally the strategy was probably sound, operate SYD & BNE from AVV to prevent JQ cannibalising QF's MEL-SYD/BNE services. But once Tiger started operating out of MEL to SYD & BNE that all went out the window, and JQ started up their current MEL-SYD/BNE services, which I think will ultimately lead to their exit from AVV.

Perhaps, the rumoured HU flights to AVV are the most sensible option for the airport - will be predominantly full of tourists stepping straight onto a tour bus, and may indeed be quicker for regular joe travellers too, if the flights are planned to arrive in the MEL madness period (ie. mid morning when flights from all over China and the rest of Asia arrive causing complete chaos in the immigration and customs halls).

 

[moa999]

and TT starting up in MEL only I suspect forced JQs hand even if they initially preferred the QF MEL, JQ AVV split.

Reality is AVV is just too far from most of Melbourne to make it realistic versus MEL, and on the wrong side of where Melbourne is mostly growing

 

[nickykim]

I agree that AVV will only survive if the LCCs move there. Interestingly the population growth in Melbourne is increasingly in the northern, north western and western suburbs. http://blog.rpdata.com/2012/05/population-growth-across-the-suburbs-whos-moving-where-and-why/

 

[sjd]

I agree that AVV will only survive if the LCCs move there. Interestingly the population growth in Melbourne is increasingly in the northern, north western and western suburbs.

But that part of Melbourne is well served by MEL already.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Dont forget tt moved a bunch of services to avv too for a while. I used them on asp-avv once!

It didnt last long and I think cost them a lot of money.

 

[harvyk]

and TT starting up in MEL only I suspect forced JQs hand even if they initially preferred the QF MEL, JQ AVV split.

Reality is AVV is just too far from most of Melbourne to make it realistic versus MEL, and on the wrong side of where Melbourne is mostly growing

I suspect the QF / JQ / MEL / AVV split was initiated by QF as much as anything else, not as something JQ wanted.
I still remember when VA ( / DJ) started a CBR service. QF built it's own security screening, and partitioned it's own departure area off from the rest of the secure area just so it's premium pax did not have to mingle with (or even risk running into) the LCC pax. (Yes, that is what they said on the news reports when it happened)

I suspect JQ was sent to AVV for partly for price but also to keep MEL a premium (aka away from LCC pax) experience.
It's only been in the last few years that JQ / QF started the "one company when it suits", and that QF no longer had a problem with "their premium pax" mixing with the great unwashed.

 

[dajop]

I suspect JQ was sent to AVV for partly for price but also to keep MEL a premium (aka away from LCC pax) experience.
It's only been in the last few years that JQ / QF started the "one company when it suits", and that QF no longer had a problem with "their premium pax" mixing with the great unwashed.

I don't think so. JQ travelled out of MEL from day 1, and the so called "premium" pax always mixed with the great unwashed of JQ. From memory JQ's initial routes were MEL-> HBA/LST/MCY/OOL with NTL, DRW, BNK, CNS & TSV following soon after. Initially it was only BNE/SYD that went from AVV, and it was all about reducing leakage of MEL/SYD and MEL/BNE QF traffic to JQ.

 

[harvyk]

I don't think so. JQ travelled out of MEL from day 1, and the so called "premium" pax always mixed with the great unwashed of JQ. From memory JQ's initial routes were MEL-> HBA/LST/MCY/OOL with NTL, DRW, BNK, CNS & TSV following soon after. Initially it was only BNE/SYD that went from AVV, and it was all about reducing leakage of MEL/SYD and MEL/BNE QF traffic to JQ.

I was under the impression that it was AVV only in the early days, and Jetstar to fly from Avalon: report - BusinessNews - www.theage.com.au would seem to support that theory since JQ was modeled on Ryanair whom only used secondary airports where ever possible.

 

[dajop]

I was under the impression that it was AVV only in the early days, and Jetstar to fly from Avalon: report - BusinessNews - www.theage.com.au would seem to support that theory since JQ was modeled on Ryanair whom only used secondary airports where ever possible.

No it is a common myth. In their first week of operations I did a day return to HBA on JQ out of Tullamarine (for $30 or something like that). Definitely all of the "Jetstarised" QF routes went from Tullamarine.

 

[harvyk]

No it is a common myth. In their first week of operations I did a day return to HBA on JQ out of Tullamarine (for $30 or something like that). Definitely all of the "Jetstarised" QF routes went from Tullamarine.

It was certainly one which took quite some time to be dispelled in that case... I remember hearing about it as "JQ now fly to MEL as well" and I didn't start hearing that until JQ started flying Int. Then again, since JQ has never flown from CBR (and with any luck they never will), JQ's ads here where simply rehashes of SYD ad's, and if SYD was to AVV only in those days that would be where the confusion was.

 

[whatmeworry]

and TT starting up in MEL only I suspect forced JQs hand even if they initially preferred the QF MEL, JQ AVV split.

Reality is AVV is just too far from most of Melbourne to make it realistic versus MEL, and on the wrong side of where Melbourne is mostly growing

But that part of Melbourne is well served by MEL already.

In actual fact, Melbourne population is actually shifting to the west.
Yeah a lot of the suburbs in the new suburbs in the west are actually closer to MEL then AVV. But both are relatively accessible by freeways.

 

[seanpodge]

Victoria's population is very concentrated in Melbourne, even by Australian standards. I'm pretty sure that Melbourne's population centre point is somewhere east of Hawthorn. Certainly Melbourne's population has always been mainly to the east of the CDB, which is reflected in things like the train and tram system, which both have more and longer lines to the east. Geelong on it's own can't support AVV and the other major regional centres nearish to Melbourne (e.g. Ballarat, Bendigo) are, like much of Melbourne's west, closer to MEL than AVV.

There have been some ideas of opening a third airport in the south east, which would have a better chance than AVV of success. That said, there's plenty of room to expand at MEL so any new airport would be up against the convenience of an all in one MEL.

 

[Melburnian1]

Jetstar gives Geelong eight months to prove Avalon’s worth | Geelong Advertiser


Regardless of whether Melbourne should have a second airport it's pretty clear to me what AVV need to do to survive - entice non-alliance intl LCCs away from MEL (Air Asia, Royal Brunei JQi etc) and try and get new LCCs to come to Melbourne, launching from AVV, not MEL (Scoot, Cebu Pacific etc). People catching LCCs dont need the sort of facilities like lounge access that only the major airports have (nor do they need feeder options as they're not linked to any other airline), and offering very low landing fees would help the LCCs bring their costs down to a point where its cheaper to fly out of AVV than MEL. People connecting on non-linked itineraires would then be forced to used the struggling JQ domestic options.

I don't waiting and hoping that Geelong residents use AVV for MEL-SYD is going to save the airport.

This is an excellent suggestion. However, last year, AVV trumpeted that 5J (Cebu Pacific) might well commence flights by (if I recall) April 2014. 5J has now chosen SYD for its proposed 4X weekly MNL - Oz - MNL flights that start in early September 2014.

Wyndham and Melton are very fast growing LGAs. Arguably, it may be easier to get to AVV than MEL from both, although the advantage is especially clear for Wyndham. However, AVV is poorly positioned for southeast, inner south, eastern and northeastern Melburnians, with the southeast, inner south and eastern suburbs being Melbourne's traditional, wealthiest suburbs and hence providing a disproportionate share of air travellers.