Australian Aviation Thread - October 2018

qf789 · Sun Oct 21, 2018 5:52 am

Today's CX142 PER-HKG flight has been cancelled, looks like an engine issue

TasFlyer · Sun Oct 21, 2018 6:13 am

Light plane crashes west of Launceston, pilot suffers severe burns:

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-21/plane-crash-at-hagley-in-northern-tasmania/10401826?pfmredir=sm

waoz1 · Sun Oct 21, 2018 7:58 am

Perth airports new rail link might blow out.
Contaminated soil from airport fire fighting foams the cause.
$320 mil is a bit of soil tho.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/enviro ... b88995784z

ClassicLover · Sun Oct 21, 2018 10:08 am

qf2220 wrote:
ClassicLover wrote:
Hey people,

You might remember back in June I posted on the Australian Aviation June thread that I was doing my Master's thesis at Cranfield University for my Air Transport Management degree. I was asking for people who flew in Australia for business purposes to do a survey.

The purpose of the survey was to find out the attitudes of business travellers towards new entrants in the Australian domestic market. Anyway, I've now successfully completed my MSc, and I have the results for you if you want to see them.

They're published here - https://travelupdate.boardingarea.com/australian-business-new-airline/

If you have any additional questions on it, feel free to ask and I'll answer them here. Clearly it's not all the information from the survey, but it should give you a good flavour anyway.

Thanks to everyone who took a few minutes out of their day to do it, I really appreciate it!

Trent.

Thanks for the follow up. These results are not unexpected, which is good in that it gives your research some validity. What might be interesting is to do some discrete choice modelling to see what people are actually willing to pay for these attributes. There would be some of this quantified in the existing literature I am sure, but some more up to date information would be a worthy addition to the field.

All the best post MSc!

Yes, the results pretty much backed up what was in the literature. I was delighted with the response rate really, I lucked out there.

It would be interesting to see what people are willing to pay for the various attributes. Though I imagine Jetstar and Tiger have that already puzzled out to one extent or another.

Thanks for the kind words! I'm delighted it's all done, but miss doing it at the same time.

aerokiwi wrote:
Congrats on the Masters!

And some interesting results. I've always been a little perplexed re lounge access. I have it by default but use ot for maybe 1 in 8 trips, and even then, just for 15 minutes to grab a quick coffee or snack. I'm usually in such a huge rush and trying to cram in as many appointments as possible that I'm mostly just concerned about missing my flight.

So I'm curious, for those that actually travel for work, how many actually have the time to loll about in longes admiring the view? Leisure travel, sure, great to have. But for work... really? If I you get to the airport early enough to make the most of a lounge, wouldn't you rather try and get an earlier flight?

Thanks very much!

That's an interesting question. Whenever I've flown for work, I tend to want to get to and from as quickly as possible, even moreso when travelling with a colleague. It's still nice to have the lounge access if you're travelling around a meal time though, especially end of the day as it may take some time to get home.

Lounge access is great when travelling for leisure, I agree.

getluv · Sun Oct 21, 2018 1:15 pm

ClassicLover wrote:
Hey people,

You might remember back in June I posted on the Australian Aviation June thread that I was doing my Master's thesis at Cranfield University for my Air Transport Management degree. I was asking for people who flew in Australia for business purposes to do a survey.

The purpose of the survey was to find out the attitudes of business travellers towards new entrants in the Australian domestic market. Anyway, I've now successfully completed my MSc, and I have the results for you if you want to see them.

They're published here - https://travelupdate.boardingarea.com/australian-business-new-airline/

If you have any additional questions on it, feel free to ask and I'll answer them here. Clearly it's not all the information from the survey, but it should give you a good flavour anyway.

Thanks to everyone who took a few minutes out of their day to do it, I really appreciate it!

Trent.

Well done for completing your Masters. I remember finishing mine and feeling relieved after the hard slog.

Re survey results, no surprise. However, I remember having concerns when you first approached the forum and I didn't complete the survey. In a survey like this, enthusiasts would be poor respondents as there is usually have an inherent bias and can lack objectivity.

Furthermore, most business travellers don't pay for their own flight, their company does and usually with corporate discounts. Also when I read the comment about "cosy duopoly" in your commentary on your blog, it demonstrated to me that the people you were targetting were not ideal. Nevertheless, it was your survey and approach and you can only report on what you have.

ClassicLover · Sun Oct 21, 2018 3:29 pm

getluv wrote:
Well done for completing your Masters. I remember finishing mine and feeling relieved after the hard slog.

Re survey results, no surprise. However, I remember having concerns when you first approached the forum and I didn't complete the survey. In a survey like this, enthusiasts would be poor respondents as there is usually have an inherent bias and can lack objectivity.

Furthermore, most business travellers don't pay for their own flight, their company does and usually with corporate discounts. Also when I read the comment about "cosy duopoly" in your commentary on your blog, it demonstrated to me that the people you were targetting were not ideal. Nevertheless, it was your survey and approach and you can only report on what you have

Thanks, it is nice to be done!

I agree with you completely on the bias. I wrote about that in the text of the thesis, to point out this possibility due to the sampling frame I used. I also advertised it on FlyerTalk on the Qantas and Virgin forums, via the blog, Australian Frequent Flyer forum, Facebook... so it wasn't just here. Even so, it certainly will be biased due to the method used.

The comments by and large were pretty decent, some moreso than others. It was just one section of my thesis, but I found it interesting, if not at all surprising

CraigAnderson · Mon Oct 22, 2018 4:29 am

Qantas moving from Manila T1 to T3 end of this month, also QF19/20 becoming daily

https://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-moves-t ... ource=hero

CraigAnderson · Mon Oct 22, 2018 4:32 am

Virgin Australia reckons its got a good half-year ahead, expecting underlying profit before tax "to grow in excess of 20 per cent" to "at least $100 million” for the first half of the current financial year despite a near $90 million increase in fuel costs.

http://australianaviation.com.au/2018/1 ... it-growth/

zkncj · Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:12 am

CraigAnderson wrote:
Virgin Australia reckons its got a good half-year ahead, expecting underlying profit before tax "to grow in excess of 20 per cent" to "at least $100 million” for the first half of the current financial year despite a near $90 million increase in fuel costs.

http://australianaviation.com.au/2018/1 ... it-growth/

Wonder how much of that would atruibe to the removal of the majority of domestic A330 services? Vs is China really starting to pay off for VA?

log0008 · Mon Oct 22, 2018 5:22 am

zkncj wrote:
CraigAnderson wrote:
Virgin Australia reckons its got a good half-year ahead, expecting underlying profit before tax "to grow in excess of 20 per cent" to "at least $100 million” for the first half of the current financial year despite a near $90 million increase in fuel costs.

http://australianaviation.com.au/2018/1 ... it-growth/

Wonder how much of that would atruibe to the removal of the majority of domestic A330 services? Vs is China really starting to pay off for VA?

Mostly of the back of the domestic market i'd guess - the domestic market is posting monthly load factor record almost every month, mining traffic has also picked up.

Qantas16 · Mon Oct 22, 2018 6:50 am

CraigAnderson wrote:
Qantas moving from Manila T1 to T3 end of this month, also QF19/20 becoming daily

https://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-moves-t ... ource=hero

Great news, the Oz-MNL market has grown pretty quickly in the past few years.

Related note, PR has (re)added their 5th weekly BNE-MNL flight over December/January. Seems BNE-MNL nonstop on the A321neo is doing well for them!

TasFlyer · Mon Oct 22, 2018 8:27 pm

log0008 wrote:
zkncj wrote:
CraigAnderson wrote:
Virgin Australia reckons its got a good half-year ahead, expecting underlying profit before tax "to grow in excess of 20 per cent" to "at least $100 million” for the first half of the current financial year despite a near $90 million increase in fuel costs.

http://australianaviation.com.au/2018/1 ... it-growth/

Wonder how much of that would atruibe to the removal of the majority of domestic A330 services? Vs is China really starting to pay off for VA?

Mostly of the back of the domestic market i'd guess - the domestic market is posting monthly load factor record almost every month, mining traffic has also picked up.

Speaking of the domestic market performance, the August results were released on Friday and are available at: https://bitre.gov.au/publications/ongoing/domestic_airline_activity-monthly_publications.aspx

tullamarine · Mon Oct 22, 2018 10:01 pm

TasFlyer wrote:
log0008 wrote:
zkncj wrote:

Wonder how much of that would atruibe to the removal of the majority of domestic A330 services? Vs is China really starting to pay off for VA?

Mostly of the back of the domestic market i'd guess - the domestic market is posting monthly load factor record almost every month, mining traffic has also picked up.

Speaking of the domestic market performance, the August results were released on Friday and are available at: https://bitre.gov.au/publications/ongoing/domestic_airline_activity-monthly_publications.aspx

It's no wonder both airline groups are now extremely profitable on their domestic businesses. When you see LFs of over 85%, as is the case with the many routes in the Top 30, this means just about all the peak time flights on these routes are going out full. Fuel will be a big factor in limiting profit growth in 2018/19 particularly as older hedge contracts expire but whilst load factors hold up and capacity growth is constrained the bull run for domestic profits should continue.

Zkpilot · Tue Oct 23, 2018 2:08 am

aerokiwi wrote:
ClassicLover wrote:
Hey people,

You might remember back in June I posted on the Australian Aviation June thread that I was doing my Master's thesis at Cranfield University for my Air Transport Management degree. I was asking for people who flew in Australia for business purposes to do a survey.

The purpose of the survey was to find out the attitudes of business travellers towards new entrants in the Australian domestic market. Anyway, I've now successfully completed my MSc, and I have the results for you if you want to see them.

They're published here - https://travelupdate.boardingarea.com/australian-business-new-airline/

If you have any additional questions on it, feel free to ask and I'll answer them here. Clearly it's not all the information from the survey, but it should give you a good flavour anyway.

Thanks to everyone who took a few minutes out of their day to do it, I really appreciate it!

Trent.

And on VA shareholding, I'd reject 17.5 cents as well. Not sure why you'd sell a duopoly carrier at a masive discount with positive cashflows, "underlying" profit and a booming domestic market with a robust economy. The negative impact on MAX orders? Wishful thinking - sadly - by the usual VA deathwatchers. The NZ relationship? NZ's 3rd attempt in Australia (BNE hub, Ansett debacle, VA) and its 3rd failure... maybe something about NZ's approach... just maybe? Velocity changes - interesting, don't know all the angles to that one but a private equity owner juicing it for sale is a familiar story - I'd hope the market had learnt by now to see through PE behaviour (hello Dick Smith!).

BNE hub? That was never really a thing. Back then it was about traffic to/from New Zealand and Asia not about trying to move in on QF turf.
AN was a disaster set up before NZ was involved and they were just along for the ride.
VA - NZ took a stake to help them work together better and presumably to keep VA from the New Zealand market. I don’t think NZ had any intentions of a takeover and certainly not with the other airlines involved. As it is VA hasn’t improved with NZ leaving despite the other airlines being on board. NZ shouldn’t have increased its stake beyond the initial purchase in hindsight.
Remember that QF has also tried to hub AKL before.

qf789 · Tue Oct 23, 2018 4:58 am

zkncj wrote:
CraigAnderson wrote:
Virgin Australia reckons its got a good half-year ahead, expecting underlying profit before tax "to grow in excess of 20 per cent" to "at least $100 million” for the first half of the current financial year despite a near $90 million increase in fuel costs.

http://australianaviation.com.au/2018/1 ... it-growth/

Wonder how much of that would atruibe to the removal of the majority of domestic A330 services? Vs is China really starting to pay off for VA?

That is rather stretching the truth. Only 2 A332's are flying international where as there are 4 flying domestic and those domestic flights are often full or close to it, I cant say the same for the HKG flights. Additionally if HU sells it stake in VA as rumoured there is a good chance that the flights to HKG will not continue. Previously VA has said they want to fly to China but I belive this is HU wanting flights from the big cities such as SYD-PEK which they have not been able to do because of the one carrier, one route policy in China. SInce that policy is being relaxed there is little incentive for VA to fly to China, I would also say that QF probably will find a similar thing in the future as well.

qf789 · Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:01 am

Qantas 738 VH-XZJ has been used to carry the rules to Fiji today

aerokiwi · Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:21 am

Zkpilot wrote:
aerokiwi wrote:
ClassicLover wrote:
Hey people,

You might remember back in June I posted on the Australian Aviation June thread that I was doing my Master's thesis at Cranfield University for my Air Transport Management degree. I was asking for people who flew in Australia for business purposes to do a survey.

The purpose of the survey was to find out the attitudes of business travellers towards new entrants in the Australian domestic market. Anyway, I've now successfully completed my MSc, and I have the results for you if you want to see them.

They're published here - https://travelupdate.boardingarea.com/australian-business-new-airline/

If you have any additional questions on it, feel free to ask and I'll answer them here. Clearly it's not all the information from the survey, but it should give you a good flavour anyway.

Thanks to everyone who took a few minutes out of their day to do it, I really appreciate it!

Trent.

And on VA shareholding, I'd reject 17.5 cents as well. Not sure why you'd sell a duopoly carrier at a masive discount with positive cashflows, "underlying" profit and a booming domestic market with a robust economy. The negative impact on MAX orders? Wishful thinking - sadly - by the usual VA deathwatchers. The NZ relationship? NZ's 3rd attempt in Australia (BNE hub, Ansett debacle, VA) and its 3rd failure... maybe something about NZ's approach... just maybe? Velocity changes - interesting, don't know all the angles to that one but a private equity owner juicing it for sale is a familiar story - I'd hope the market had learnt by now to see through PE behaviour (hello Dick Smith!).

BNE hub? That was never really a thing. Back then it was about traffic to/from New Zealand and Asia not about trying to move in on QF turf.
AN was a disaster set up before NZ was involved and they were just along for the ride.
VA - NZ took a stake to help them work together better and presumably to keep VA from the New Zealand market. I don’t think NZ had any intentions of a takeover and certainly not with the other airlines involved. As it is VA hasn’t improved with NZ leaving despite the other airlines being on board. NZ shouldn’t have increased its stake beyond the initial purchase in hindsight.
Remember that QF has also tried to hub AKL before.

BNE to... Osaka. Seoul. Taipei. Bangkok. Then Sydney-LA. Round one of NZ's Australian failures. Ansett - they had a way out with Singapore, but Brierly's played their "long game", disastrously. Round two failure. Luxon spits the dummy at Virgin for not wanting to be a feeder airline for NZ metal (media reports suggest this was Luxon's demand, amongst others). Round three failure.

Happy to debate further in the NZ thread. There's so much else going on in Australian aviation to discuss here.

DeltaB717 · Tue Oct 23, 2018 5:55 am

qf789 wrote:
Qantas 738 VH-XZJ has been used to carry the rules to Fiji today

And will stay out in Fiji to carry them on to Tonga on Thursday, then back to SYD on Friday.

qf789 · Tue Oct 23, 2018 6:04 am

Jetstar Asia is planning to increase SIN-DRW from 4 weekly to 5 weekly

https://blueswandaily.com/jetstar-asia- ... frequency/

Flyingdevil737 · Tue Oct 23, 2018 6:36 am

TasFlyer wrote:
Light plane crashes west of Launceston, pilot suffers severe burns:

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-21/plane-crash-at-hagley-in-northern-tasmania/10401826?pfmredir=sm

Apparently a very high-ranking cop was the pilot of the plane (Cessna?) (I couldn’t really tell what it was in the news footage).

citadis203 · Tue Oct 23, 2018 11:14 am

Hi all,
Anyone know why VH-ONU had been as far as ADL and MEL last night?
Tia

qf789 · Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:33 pm

The Shark, E190-E2 demonstrator is on its way to DRW to start its Australian Tour

https://twitter.com/AirportWebcams/stat ... 0335569920

81819 · Tue Oct 23, 2018 3:34 pm

[*]

tullamarine wrote:
TasFlyer wrote:
log0008 wrote:

Mostly of the back of the domestic market i'd guess - the domestic market is posting monthly load factor record almost every month, mining traffic has also picked up.

Speaking of the domestic market performance, the August results were released on Friday and are available at: https://bitre.gov.au/publications/ongoing/domestic_airline_activity-monthly_publications.aspx

It's no wonder both airline groups are now extremely profitable on their domestic businesses. When you see LFs of over 85%, as is the case with the many routes in the Top 30, this means just about all the peak time flights on these routes are going out full. Fuel will be a big factor in limiting profit growth in 2018/19 particularly as older hedge contracts expire but whilst load factors hold up and capacity growth is constrained the bull run for domestic profits should continue.

With fuel.accounting for approximately 25% of the costs of a domestic flight, I'd suggest the extra cost of fuel will be more than covered by higher load factors and increased airline tickets.

If I remember correctly last year VA had an average passenger ticket price of $210.00. To achieve an equivalent yield to QANTAS they had to increase this price to $235.00. If we also consider they have removed the bulk of the E190's and ATR's from their fleet, we could be seeing a situation of lower costs (excluding fuel) and higher revenues.

DeltaB717 · Tue Oct 23, 2018 9:52 pm

qf789 wrote:
The Shark, E190-E2 demonstrator is on its way to DRW to start its Australian Tour

https://twitter.com/AirportWebcams/stat ... 0335569920

It made a fuel stop and continued straight on to Singapore (Seletar): https://flightaware.com/live/flight/PRZGQ/history

qf789 · Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:07 am

AirAsia X is continuing talks with ADL this week in the hope of operating KUL-ADL. Other new destinations in Australia such as CNS and DRW are being considered if the airline takes delivery of the A321neoLR.

On current Australian ops

The move from MEL to AVV loads are looking better than expected
SYD though flights remain that could be re-evaluated due to the difficulties of selling seats in low season
OOL is doing ok
PER is the star performer, while being cut earlier this year the airline has focused on yields and increasing loads. Currently loads are up and the airline is making money on the route

https://www.airlineratings.com/news/air ... footprint/

Dan23 · Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:26 am

Not sure if this all these have been posted before but there are some aircraft swaps on various Qantas USA services in November:

QF55 BNE-LAX operated by 744 on 12/11, 14/11, 17/11, 19/11, 21/11, 26/11 and 28/11
QF56 LAX-BNE operated by 744 on 12/11, 15/11, 17/11, 19/11, 24/11, 26/11 and 29/11
QF55/56 then reverts to 789 from 1/12 (generally 4pw with some exceptions in Dec and early Jan)

QF15 BNE-LAX operated by 744 on 24/11
QF16 LAX-BNE operated by 744 on 22/11

QF93 MEL-LAX operated by 789 on 24/11

QF11/12 SYD-LAX-SYD on 27/11 is the last scheduled 744 service on that route. Daily A380 after.

qf789 · Wed Oct 24, 2018 11:07 am

QF10 LHR-PER (Tuesday dep) suffered from a 2 hour delay due to IFE not working

https://twitter.com/thatjohn/status/1054752438320816128

qf789 · Wed Oct 24, 2018 11:25 am

AVV new terminal and forecourt

https://twitter.com/AvalonAirportAU/sta ... 7733312512

qf789 · Wed Oct 24, 2018 11:50 am

Update on QF 789's to be delivered next month

ZNG is currently undergoing pre flight checks with first flight expected on 5th of November
ZNH is still in final assembly, I had expected this to be out of FAL by now but production is taken longer than expected currently 20 days, normally its around 14-16 days, this should still be delivered on time but it will be tight

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... dit#gid=19

log0008 · Wed Oct 24, 2018 10:18 pm

Qantas has posted record revenue for Q1 2019 up up 6.3% to $4.41 billion

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/qant ... ue-2018-10

Load performance for those interested

qf789 · Thu Oct 25, 2018 1:15 am

Qantas to open new first lounge in SIN and existing business lounge will be expanded, overall capacity will increase 60% to offer seating for around 800 customers

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... at-changi/

qf789 · Thu Oct 25, 2018 1:22 am

Delta to use Delta one suites to SYD from 18 April 2019

https://www.ausbt.com.au/delta-one-busi ... april-2019

qf789 · Thu Oct 25, 2018 1:35 am

Air India has agreed to explore the business case of flying to PER

https://blueswandaily.com/air-india-agr ... -to-perth/

planemanofnz · Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:41 am

qf789 wrote:
Qantas to open new first lounge in SIN and existing business lounge will be expanded, overall capacity will increase 60% to offer seating for around 800 customers

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... at-changi/

Pardon my ignorance, but why does QF need to invest in an F lounge with capacity for 240 people, when i) it currently only caters for maybe 2 or 3 flights a day with F through SIN, and ii) Australia - LHR F passengers will likely be moved from the flights through SIN to non-stop flights with Project Sunrise, in ~5 years? Is it because they're expecting a lot of premium FFP members, eligible for F lounge access, to use the lounge too? F seems like such a niche these days! Kind of fascinated to see it continue to be a part of QF's strategy!

Cheers,

C.

AsiaTravel · Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:48 am

planemanofnz wrote:
qf789 wrote:
Qantas to open new first lounge in SIN and existing business lounge will be expanded, overall capacity will increase 60% to offer seating for around 800 customers

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... at-changi/

Pardon my ignorance, but why does QF need to invest in an F lounge with capacity for 240 people, when i) it currently only caters for maybe 2 or 3 flights a day with F through SIN, and ii) Australia - LHR F passengers will likely be moved from the flights through SIN to non-stop flights with Project Sunrise, in ~5 years? Is it because they're expecting a lot of premium FFP members, eligible for F lounge access, to use the lounge too? F seems like such a niche these days! Kind of fascinated to see it continue to be a part of QF's strategy!

Cheers,

C.

Lots of Platinum FF is one thing but also Oneworld Emeralds flying on AY, BA and JL. I suspect that Emirates might redirect its First and Platinum customers to the F lounge too, at least that is what I would do as a customer.

planemanofnz · Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:49 am

Zkpilot wrote:
Remember that QF has also tried to hub AKL before.

The good old days, when we used to see the likes of AKL - LAX/EZE/PPT on QF, and AKL - SIN on JQ.

Would love to see them exploit AKL's geography for routes not currently possible from SYD/MEL, like:

- AKL - JFK
- AKL - MEX
- AKL - GRU

But I guess Project Sunrise will soon erode AKL's geographic advantage with these, so no real point.

:hissyfit:

Cheers,

C.

planemanofnz · Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:55 am

qf789 wrote:
Air India has agreed to explore the business case of flying to PER

I'm just not sure about this - AI isn't in great shape at the moment, and I feel like the market is too fragmented.

What's happened to i) MU's proposed PVG - PER flight, and ii) VN's proposed SGN - PHE flight? No update?

Cheers,

C.

planemanofnz · Thu Oct 25, 2018 9:56 am

AsiaTravel wrote:
Lots of Platinum FF is one thing but also Oneworld Emeralds flying on AY, BA and JL. I suspect that Emirates might redirect its First and Platinum customers to the F lounge too, at least that is what I would do as a customer.

Valid points re the oneworld partners, but on EK - is that partnership even going to be around in the next 5-10 years (the period future-proofing/forecasting for this lounge would have to take account of)? BA does have their own Concorde Bar for F only at SIN too, I think?

Cheers,

C.

ArtV · Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:31 am

What's happened to i) MU's proposed PVG - PER flight, and ii) VN's proposed SGN - PHE flight? No update?

Cheers,

C.

The VN flight from SGN-PHE was a charter arrangement - organised at the PHE end. VN withdrew from the charter arrangement recently, and a new charter operator has been arranged I understand (although I seem to recall that the flights were scheduled to commence at the end of October, and I haven't heard of anything recently). When I last spoke the to organisers 1.5 months back, everything was still on track and freight commitments made the flights profitable.

AsiaTravel · Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:33 am

planemanofnz wrote:
AsiaTravel wrote:
Lots of Platinum FF is one thing but also Oneworld Emeralds flying on AY, BA and JL. I suspect that Emirates might redirect its First and Platinum customers to the F lounge too, at least that is what I would do as a customer.

Valid points re the oneworld partners, but on EK - is that partnership even going to be around in the next 5-10 years (the period future-proofing/forecasting for this lounge would have to take account of)? BA does have their own Concorde Bar for F only at SIN too, I think?

Cheers,

C.

You are right, I forgot about the BA Concorde bar.

Regarding the EK partnership, I'm one of those who think it is here to stay. It is the best partner to cover Europe and no one come any closer than that with a one stop connection from Australia. QF can focus on high-yield routes (LHR, maybe CDG and FRA in the future) while lower yield pax can still fly QF codes but on EK metal via DXB. It's a win-win situation for Qantas. I personally fly EK a lot from LYS, GVA and CDG but always with QF code, ending the partnership would make me switch to EK and QF would essentially forgo "free money".

BNEFlyer · Thu Oct 25, 2018 10:41 am

planemanofnz wrote:
qf789 wrote:
Qantas to open new first lounge in SIN and existing business lounge will be expanded, overall capacity will increase 60% to offer seating for around 800 customers

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... at-changi/

Pardon my ignorance, but why does QF need to invest in an F lounge with capacity for 240 people, when i) it currently only caters for maybe 2 or 3 flights a day with F through SIN, and ii) Australia - LHR F passengers will likely be moved from the flights through SIN to non-stop flights with Project Sunrise, in ~5 years? Is it because they're expecting a lot of premium FFP members, eligible for F lounge access, to use the lounge too? F seems like such a niche these days! Kind of fascinated to see it continue to be a part of QF's strategy!

Cheers,

C.

QF: One flight a day AU-LHR via SIN (transit pax); One flight SIN-LHR (originating pax), two flights SIN-AU (originating) with F plus CL/P1/Plat/OWE on those flights plus other SYD/MEL flights and SIN-BNE.
BA: SYD-SIN-LHR vv with pax SYD-LHR/SIN-LHR and plus BAEC Gold/OWE
EK: BNE-SIN-DXB; MEL-SIN-DXB; SIN-CMB-DXB; SIN-DXB and F plus EK Platinum
QR/UL/JL/MH/AY OWE's.

Project Sunrise will be on 787/77X/A350 and won't have F, so if customers want to fly F to LHR they'll have to take QF1/2.

qf002 · Thu Oct 25, 2018 11:57 am

planemanofnz wrote:
Pardon my ignorance, but why does QF need to invest in an F lounge with capacity for 240 people, when i) it currently only caters for maybe 2 or 3 flights a day with F through SIN, and ii) Australia - LHR F passengers will likely be moved from the flights through SIN to non-stop flights with Project Sunrise, in ~5 years? Is it because they're expecting a lot of premium FFP members, eligible for F lounge access, to use the lounge too? F seems like such a niche these days! Kind of fascinated to see it continue to be a part of QF's strategy!

They have to build a second lounge anyway (the existing one is bursting at the seams and cannot be expanded) so might as well make it a First Lounge. Caters to their own passengers/frequent flyers and also allows them to charge more when OW Emeralds come in.

As for the Concorde Bar, it is very average by most accounts. BA might be quite happy to send their F passengers to the new QF lounge and save the expense of operating their own broom cupboard.

redroo · Thu Oct 25, 2018 2:21 pm

planemanofnz wrote:
qf789 wrote:
Qantas to open new first lounge in SIN and existing business lounge will be expanded, overall capacity will increase 60% to offer seating for around 800 customers

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... at-changi/

Pardon my ignorance, but why does QF need to invest in an F lounge with capacity for 240 people, when i) it currently only caters for maybe 2 or 3 flights a day with F through SIN, and ii) Australia - LHR F passengers will likely be moved from the flights through SIN to non-stop flights with Project Sunrise, in ~5 years? Is it because they're expecting a lot of premium FFP members, eligible for F lounge access, to use the lounge too? F seems like such a niche these days! Kind of fascinated to see it continue to be a part of QF's strategy!

Cheers,

C.

There is a lot of premium FFP traffic between the two financial centres of SYD and SIN. This will continue even with the planned non stop to London.

qf789 · Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:00 am

3U has applied for 2 weekly URQ-CKG-SYD starting December using A330/350 equipment

https://blueswandaily.com/sichuan-airli ... y-service/

qf789 · Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:01 am

Westjet is seeking permission from Australia to codeshare on all QF US and Canadian services

https://twitter.com/Jamie_Freed/status/ ... 5166942208

qf789 · Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:05 am

REX passenger numbers in September increase by 4%, load factors up to 66%

https://blueswandaily.com/rex-pax-up-4- ... ves-to-66/

qf789 · Fri Oct 26, 2018 6:11 am

VS expands codeshare with VA

PER-BNE
PER-SYD
PER-MEL
BNE-CBR
BNE-DRW
BNE-TSV
BNE-NTL
BNE-ROK
MEL-HBA
MEL-LST
MEL-DRW

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/ai ... -oct-2018/

qf002 · Fri Oct 26, 2018 11:58 am

qf789 wrote:
3U has applied for 2 weekly URQ-CKG-SYD starting December using A330/350 equipment

https://blueswandaily.com/sichuan-airli ... y-service/

They already operate CKG-SYD twice weekly with A330s so this is just an extension to URC, seems a bit random to me. Or do they also need to submit an application to switch equipment to the A350?

log0008 · Fri Oct 26, 2018 12:14 pm

qf789 wrote:
REX passenger numbers in September increase by 4%, load factors up to 66%

https://blueswandaily.com/rex-pax-up-4- ... ves-to-66/

Load factor is +5% and now +6% for first 3 months of FY 18/19 - thats some strong numbers

jupiter2 · Fri Oct 26, 2018 12:49 pm

qf002 wrote:
qf789 wrote:
3U has applied for 2 weekly URQ-CKG-SYD starting December using A330/350 equipment

https://blueswandaily.com/sichuan-airli ... y-service/

They already operate CKG-SYD twice weekly with A330s so this is just an extension to URC, seems a bit random to me. Or do they also need to submit an application to switch equipment to the A350?

The existing service continues to Chengdu, so these would appear to be additional services.

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