Goodbye wrote:

melpax wrote:

Vietjet to start flights between AVV & SGN in the second half of next year. Good to see Avalon getting another international LCC.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/vietj ... 685e7b43ff

Wow, so still no connection between Queensland and Vietnam. Very surprised considering Victoria now has 3 airlines serving the SGN route and QLD still has nothing!

Lets not forget Vietjet 'promised' they'd start flying to BNE this year and nothing has happened. They have no aircraft capable of launching AVV non-stop and I would take any announcement by them with a gigantic grain of salt.

CraigAnderson wrote:

Airbus A220-300 coming to SYD and BNE next week as part of a 'demonstration tour'. SYD visit will be Tue Oct29 with an invite-only joyflight "for airline executives and other invited guests".

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news ... dney-visit

Ironic how it isn’t visiting Perth - a location which could benefit from the aircraft especially on FIFO routes. Some Fokker 100’s are approaching 30 years old and are in dire need of replacement. The A220 would almost be a perfect replacement.

rtav wrote:

CraigAnderson wrote:

Airbus A220-300 coming to SYD and BNE next week as part of a 'demonstration tour'. SYD visit will be Tue Oct29 with an invite-only joyflight "for airline executives and other invited guests".

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news ... dney-visit

Ironic how it isn’t visiting Perth - a location which could benefit from the aircraft especially on FIFO routes. Some Fokker 100’s are approaching 30 years old and are in dire need of replacement. The A220 would almost be a perfect replacement.

Why would it? Its visiting the head offices of airlines, QF in SYD, VA in BNE, NZ in AKL. The aircraft doesnt need to visit the ports it might be flying from?

rtav wrote:

CraigAnderson wrote:

Airbus A220-300 coming to SYD and BNE next week as part of a 'demonstration tour'. SYD visit will be Tue Oct29 with an invite-only joyflight "for airline executives and other invited guests".

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news ... dney-visit

Ironic how it isn’t visiting Perth - a location which could benefit from the aircraft especially on FIFO routes. Some Fokker 100’s are approaching 30 years old and are in dire need of replacement. The A220 would almost be a perfect replacement.

The decision for a purchase of A220s will be made in Sydney or Brisbane not in Perth. It is hard to say if the A220 is the ideal candidate; it is the right size but the strength of the F100 is its durability on the sometimes less than ideal runways encountered on FIFO operations. The only other aircraft as reliable in such situations was the BAe146. The A220 hasn't yet been proven in these environments so it is likely QF and VA will wait until some in-service data from airlines such as Air Vanuatu operating in more rustic areas is available.

In comparison to the US dollar the Australian dollar had depreciated significantly this year.

With VietJet"a costs being predominately in US dollars, the economics of the route may not be as good as it was a year ago.

Things change!

rtav wrote:

CraigAnderson wrote:

Airbus A220-300 coming to SYD and BNE next week as part of a 'demonstration tour'. SYD visit will be Tue Oct29 with an invite-only joyflight "for airline executives and other invited guests".

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news ... dney-visit

Ironic how it isn’t visiting Perth - a location which could benefit from the aircraft especially on FIFO routes. Some Fokker 100’s are approaching 30 years old and are in dire need of replacement. The A220 would almost be a perfect replacement.

It's the right size, but far from the "perfect replacement" for one simple reason: it's too expensive. A brand new aircraft will never be used for low-utilisarion charter flying. The market is too unpredictable to make sure that the capital costs are covered.

There is a reason that Alliance is buying up every Fokker they can get their hands on. Between relatively new frames they can put into service and older frames they can use as parts doners, they hope the buying spree can keep them going for another 10 years.

Qantas/Network are in the fortunate position that if the A220 was purchased for the scheduled network the 717s could migrate over to charter ops.

qf789 wrote:

zkojq wrote:

How long has QF80 been operated by an A380? Noticed a few famous folks aboard this morning but thought that it was still operated by an A330-300.

It was only a once off

What was the reason? MotoGP?

zkojq wrote:

qf789 wrote:

zkojq wrote:

How long has QF80 been operated by an A380? Noticed a few famous folks aboard this morning but thought that it was still operated by an A330-300.

It was only a once off

What was the reason? MotoGP?

IIRC it's JTB charter.

Michael

eamondzhang wrote:

zkojq wrote:

qf789 wrote:

It was only a once off

What was the reason? MotoGP?

IIRC it's JTB charter.

Michael

It was a FF Points Plane. Seats on the MEL-NRT sector were only bookable with QF FF points.

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... demptions/

VH-ZNI has entered service tonight as QF95 MEL-LAX

Fuling wrote:

eamondzhang wrote:

zkojq wrote:

What was the reason? MotoGP?

IIRC it's JTB charter.

Michael

It was a FF Points Plane. Seats on the MEL-NRT sector were only bookable with QF FF points.

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... demptions/

That's MEL-NRT, but I'm talking about the return NRT-MEL and hence why A380 was used in the first place. The whole point plane for MEL-NRT is a very good PR move afterwards.

Michael

Just got off first revenue flight on VH-ZNI(one that flew JFK-SYD).

Despite being new plane there was burst water pipe causing flood on the plane(albeit no snake) - putting 2 toilets out of commission and basically rear section of economy carpet remaining damp and cold throughout the flight

It was almost air turn back but crew on board was able to semi fix it (apparently one of the FA is mechanic as well and other former plumber)

So much for PAE build being more reliable haha bit unfortunate to have burst pipe on brand new plane...

qf789 wrote:

Virgin's AGM (6 Nov), though linked article says next week, up to 3% cut in capacity for domestic due to weakening economy, routes planning for increases for second half off the table now

VA is also planning to release group strategy next month, though review on all routes may not be announced until December

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/busine ... de37a3f278

Thanks for the update even though it's not the news we wanted to hear. Hopefully there is a statement released on 6 November with the details.

The domestic market may be weakening, but when the top 10 routes are all over 80% load factor, with six over 85%, during August, things can't be too bad (the usual caveat about unknown yields applies of course).

Related to this, VA has recently added an extra weekly HBA-PER on Sundays from mid December until the end of January, and an extra weekly HBA-SYD on Mondays from the beginning until the end of January. Looks like they have some faith in HBA's 7.5% growth in August despite the national plateau.

With regards to these extra HBA services, I'm curious in situations such as this as to whether VA typically attempts to balance loads by seeking changed itineraries from existing passengers from full connecting flights to the initially empty new non-stop flights?

eamondzhang wrote:

Fuling wrote:

eamondzhang wrote:

IIRC it's JTB charter.

Michael

It was a FF Points Plane. Seats on the MEL-NRT sector were only bookable with QF FF points.

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... demptions/

That's MEL-NRT, but I'm talking about the return NRT-MEL and hence why A380 was used in the first place. The whole point plane for MEL-NRT is a very good PR move afterwards.

Michael

Oh really? I thought NRT-MEL was bookable for anyone. MB

Fuling wrote:

eamondzhang wrote:

Fuling wrote:

It was a FF Points Plane. Seats on the MEL-NRT sector were only bookable with QF FF points.

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... demptions/

That's MEL-NRT, but I'm talking about the return NRT-MEL and hence why A380 was used in the first place. The whole point plane for MEL-NRT is a very good PR move afterwards.

Michael

Oh really? I thought NRT-MEL was bookable for anyone. MB

Not that particular NRT-MEL on the A380. They made a simple swap with QF35/6 on the day to use A380 - pretty smart planning IMHO.

Michael

With the Feds changing Perth to a regional city from a major city.

Could this also affect the major port status too? I know this has affected how many services Bris/Melb/Syd/Per share.

Surely this is purely how the department of immigration classify these cities- not a foreign affairs classification that would impact bilaterals?

waoz1 wrote:

With the Feds changing Perth to a regional city from a major city.

Could this also affect the major port status too? I know this has affected how many services Bris/Melb/Syd/Per share.

If it did, Qatar would already have a plane en route to Brisbane.

dredgy wrote:

waoz1 wrote:

With the Feds changing Perth to a regional city from a major city.

Could this also affect the major port status too? I know this has affected how many services Bris/Melb/Syd/Per share.

If it did, Qatar would already have a plane en route to Brisbane.

It has nothing to do with aviation bilaterals so BNE and QR will have to wait

Seems more like a push by a few regions to unlock interest in migrants going to their cities through special visa allocation, as without it the interest is limited.

Last night’s SA flight to JNB got cancelled so currently there are 2 SA A340’s on ground

Tonight marks the first of JQ's additional weekly ADL-HBA flight, which operates on Mondays and compliments the existing Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday services. VH-VQH has the honours of operating the inaugural run, and is currently on descent into HBA as JQ681, which is running 40 minutes late. This aircraft will then operate the JQ712 HBA-MEL service.

Interesting regarding AA’s announcement of DFW-AKL, and LAX-CHC, seasonally. Still surprised MEL hasn’t made the cut for LAX even seasonally.

And QF to go daily SYD-DFW. With a 380 where is the frame coming from?

http://news.aa.com/news/news-details/20 ... fault.aspx

Air Baltic A220-300 in SYD on its demonstration tour









https://twitter.com/www16Right/status/1 ... 34658?s=20

Inaugural China Eastern 789 to SYD operated by Shanghai Airlines on 27 Oct 19



https://twitter.com/www16Right/status/1 ... 69830?s=20

IASC had renewed JQ's capacity to Cook Islands for another 5 years

https://blueswandaily.com/iasc-renews-j ... k-islands/

Qantas studying the feasibility of SYD-KGC flights

https://www.theislanderonline.com.au/st ... s/?cs=1525

qf789 wrote:

Qantas studying the feasibility of SYD-KGC flights

https://www.theislanderonline.com.au/st ... s/?cs=1525

Guessing it would have to be a Dash 8 service?

But good on them, hopefully it will go through as it should be a boost to the local economy.

Concept designs for the new Sydney West Airport have been released:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/fir ... 534mn.html







Can't say that they look particularly inspiring, especially from the outside!

allrite wrote:

Concept designs for the new Sydney West Airport have been released:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/fir ... 534mn.html







Can't say that they look particularly inspiring, especially from the outside!

The important thing to consider is that they are concept images, so the reality may be very different.

I am sure by the time stakeholders have had their say, it will be more akin to a functional but uninspiring tin shed than anything grand if we look at past examples. Airlines don’t want a Taj Mahal as that will only increase their usage costs.

IndianicWorld wrote:

I am sure by the time stakeholders have had their say, it will be more akin to a functional but uninspiring tin shed than anything grand if we look at past examples. Airlines don’t want a Taj Mahal as that will only increase their usage costs.

I think the exterior design has that covered!

allrite wrote:

IndianicWorld wrote:

I am sure by the time stakeholders have had their say, it will be more akin to a functional but uninspiring tin shed than anything grand if we look at past examples. Airlines don’t want a Taj Mahal as that will only increase their usage costs.

I think the exterior design has that covered!

Tick. That’s step one.. now for the inside

And IASC has awarded one HND slot to QF and the other to VA.

https://www.iasc.gov.au/recent_cases/2019.aspx#Jap1

qf2220 wrote:

And IASC has awarded one HND slot to QF and the other to VA.

https://www.iasc.gov.au/recent_cases/2019.aspx#Jap1

Seems fair. Now to see if QF uses it MEL-HND, to counter a potential NH entry into MEL-HND, and leave NRT to JL in MEL, or purely goes in for SYD-HND x2.

I’m also curious around a JL/QF JV to counter NH/VA. However considering JL starting their own long haul LCC vs expansion of the Jetstar brand in Japan, either QF didn’t want to invest in Jetstar long haul, or a slightly less collaborative relationship now exists- which given rumours of the frosty CX/QF relationship wouldn’t be a surprise either.

smi0006 wrote:

qf2220 wrote:

And IASC has awarded one HND slot to QF and the other to VA.

https://www.iasc.gov.au/recent_cases/2019.aspx#Jap1

Seems fair. Now to see if QF uses it MEL-HND, to counter a potential NH entry into MEL-HND, and leave NRT to JL in MEL, or purely goes in for SYD-HND x2.

I’m also curious around a JL/QF JV to counter NH/VA. However considering JL starting their own long haul LCC vs expansion of the Jetstar brand in Japan, either QF didn’t want to invest in Jetstar long haul, or a slightly less collaborative relationship now exists- which given rumours of the frosty CX/QF relationship wouldn’t be a surprise either.

QF may not see much merits in adding a new type (787) to the Jetstar Japan fleet especially when it's for only 2 aircraft.

Jetstar hasn't expanded its long-haul fleet since 2015.
And never really based any 787s in Singapore, they dropped SIN-AKL fairly quickly.

Despite both Scoot and the various AirAsiaXs expanding rapidly, albeit based on AirAsiaXs financials without much profit.

So I think there are still some question marks with QF management/ Board about investing in medium/long-haul LCCs, which is possibly why they went it alone with Zip.
(Mind you even if 100% JAL owned i guess they could have licensed the J* brand.. interestingly its operating from NRT T1 rather than the LCC T3 so maybe trying to position it differently)

IndianicWorld wrote:

allrite wrote:

Concept designs for the new Sydney West Airport have been released:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/fir ... 534mn.html







Can't say that they look particularly inspiring, especially from the outside!

The important thing to consider is that they are concept images, so the reality may be very different.

I am sure by the time stakeholders have had their say, it will be more akin to a functional but uninspiring tin shed than anything grand if we look at past examples. Airlines don’t want a Taj Mahal as that will only increase their usage costs.

The real thing always looks worse than the concepts. But yes, its suppose to be a LCC focused airport. Look to Mel T4 for a functional but not very flashy design.

And as expected, VA has announced BNE-HND starting March 2020, whilst QF yet to announce its intentions with the slot.

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news ... march-2020

Now let’s wait and see where that extra A330 gets pulled from. Also interesting to see how the A330s are going to rotate through BNE...

downdata wrote:

IndianicWorld wrote:

allrite wrote:

Concept designs for the new Sydney West Airport have been released:
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/fir ... 534mn.html







Can't say that they look particularly inspiring, especially from the outside!

The important thing to consider is that they are concept images, so the reality may be very different.

I am sure by the time stakeholders have had their say, it will be more akin to a functional but uninspiring tin shed than anything grand if we look at past examples. Airlines don’t want a Taj Mahal as that will only increase their usage costs.

The real thing always looks worse than the concepts. But yes, its suppose to be a LCC focused airport. Look to Mel T4 for a functional but not very flashy design.

Not sure it's going to be a LCC focused airport. It may mainly start that way but it hopefully won't end that way. QF and VA will be there from the start and I'd be surprised if it doesn't have some frequencies from key internationals early. It'll serve a very large population area.

You can keep MEL T4 - it's awful.

downdata wrote:

The real thing always looks worse than the concepts. But yes, its suppose to be a LCC focused airport. Look to Mel T4 for a functional but not very flashy design.

They say that Western Sydney would start out at around 10 million passengers. Which would put it equivalent to San Antonio Airport in the USA with 24 gates, where Southwest Airlines has 40% of the passengers.

SAT is not what anyone would call "flashy"
http://mejoreszonas.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/D%C3%B3nde-dormir-en-San-Antonio-Texas-North-San-Antonio.jpg

A few more from an SSC thread
The aerial view must be a very late stage - over 100 gates, but no obvious roadways













Full Article: https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/flights/first-look-inside-western-sydneys-new-international-airport-terminal/news-story/c224cb7e1a7603e6bfc92c41a762a2de

moa999 wrote:

A few more from an SSC thread
The aerial view must be a very late stage - over 100 gates, but no obvious roadways














Full Article: https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-advice/flights/first-look-inside-western-sydneys-new-international-airport-terminal/news-story/c224cb7e1a7603e6bfc92c41a762a2de

The road link is in the lower right corner of the 3rd image shown. The roadway passes under the parallel taxiways towards the central terminal area.

Video here from Western Sydney Airport channel
[YOUTUBE]Yb18HL0bxRk[/YOUTUBE]

And screenshots of the various stages in the video.

F100Flyer wrote:

And as expected, VA has announced BNE-HND starting March 2020, whilst QF yet to announce its intentions with the slot.

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news ... march-2020

Now let’s wait and see where that extra A330 gets pulled from. Also interesting to see how the A330s are going to rotate through BNE...

As pointed out previously they can rotate them through on the weekly/biweekly PER-BNE runs. Alternatively they can just schedule a SYD-BNE or MEL-BNE sector on an A332 to rotate them through, they have done SYD-MEL previously to rotate aircraft through the 2 ports when required. Also FWIW over the past week or so VA has used the A332 on BNE-MEL on days a HKG flight hasn't taken place

Laugh at the Departure board shown at 1.18 in the WSA video two up
Barcelona, Zurich, Paris, London, Tokyo, New York, San Francisco, Beunos Aires, Philadelphia, Rosario!, Geneva, Chicago, Berne, Edinburgh, Madrid, Orleans

And only foreign airlines!
Iberia, Swiss, Air France, British Airways, United, American

moa999 wrote:

Video here from Western Sydney Airport channel


And screenshots of the various stages in the video.

They are going to need some serious travelators as the airport grows. MEL have admitted they made a mistake withy no travelators in T4; SWZ is T4 on steroids!

Qantas expands insurance portfolio to car insurance and home insurance to be offered in 2020, up to 20,000 points can earnt just by signing up and up to another 6,000 points can be earnt by members completing tasks to make their cars safer, also 1 point for every $1 spent. I wonder if they will run special offers as they have done with health such as double points for the duration of the policy

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media ... on-safety/

Thai AirAsia X starts A330-900neo service to BNE from today

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

VHZNE wrote:

qf789 wrote:

Qantas studying the feasibility of SYD-KGC flights

https://www.theislanderonline.com.au/st ... s/?cs=1525

Guessing it would have to be a Dash 8 service?

But good on them, hopefully it will go through as it should be a boost to the local economy.

Don't forget about the Eastern Dash 8-300's are coming back from JQ NZ at the end of November. QF will have some spares to put to use?

QF CEO AJ likes the A220 and could be an ideal replacement for 717's and F100's, indicates those will be replaced in the second half of the next decade however he says in its current form is too expensive

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news ... ike-to-fly

qf789 wrote:

QF CEO AJ likes the A220 and could be an ideal replacement for 717's and F100's, indicates those will be replaced in the second half of the next decade however he says in its current form is too expensive

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news ... ike-to-fly

In other words, we'll but them used.