The top 20 either unserved or underserved domestic routes



https://twitter.com/annaaero/status/118 ... 60416?s=20

For more refer to

https://www.anna.aero/2019/10/30/iata-s ... -revealed/

Delta expands Virgin codeshare

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/ai ... -oct-2019/

Vistara starts codesharing on both SQ and MI services to Australia

https://www.routesonline.com/news/38/ai ... -oct-2019/

qf789 wrote:

The top 20 either unserved or underserved domestic routes

Ugh noisy presentation - though interesting how much Canberra appears above the line. Id imagine that airpot costs are baked into these figures?

Canberra having five of the twenty largest "underserved" markets isn't a surprise. It is a market that is very hard to get 'right' in terms of balancing capacity against demand. The problem with CBR is that the traffic is super seasonal, peaking around parliamentary sitting weeks, and not price elastic so it is difficult to stimulate additional demand during quieter periods. While the headline figures for underserved traffic might be high, it is difficult to justify new year service when there are massive peaks and troughs in traffic. While that is true for leisure destinations as well, you can general fill any flight to a beach even out of school holidays if you throw a sale, but that isn't the case with Canberra.

qf2220 wrote:

qf789 wrote:

The top 20 either unserved or underserved domestic routes

Ugh noisy presentation - though interesting how much Canberra appears above the line. Id imagine that airpot costs are baked into these figures?

Canberra is a comparatively small city so the ability to add routes with any sort of decent frequency is limited. Of course, airlines like TT or JQ could add seasonal beach routes to CNS etc during school holidays but this would probably mean flights are only well occupied going one way or the other so the fare would need to be higher and probably uncompetitive against a one-stop option via SYD or BNE.

Qantas engineers union is calling for the airlines' entire fleet of B737s to be grounded following the discovery of cracks in the pickle forks of a second aircraft.

Is this a reasonable request, or an overreaction? Qantas has not yet confirmed there were cracks found in a second B737.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/compani ... 5360y.html

openskies88 wrote:

Qantas engineers union is calling for the airlines' entire fleet of B737s to be grounded following the discovery of cracks in the pickle forks of a second aircraft.

Is this a reasonable request, or an overreaction? Qantas has not yet confirmed there were cracks found in a second B737.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/compani ... 5360y.html

Sounds a bit of an over-reaction. Obviously the oldest members of the fleet with the higher cycles have to be checked ASAP but grounding planes as young as 5 or 6 years when there is no evidence that such planes are affected appears slightly ridiculous.

openskies88 wrote:

Qantas engineers union is calling for the airlines' entire fleet of B737s to be grounded following the discovery of cracks in the pickle forks of a second aircraft.

Is this a reasonable request, or an overreaction? Qantas has not yet confirmed there were cracks found in a second B737.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/compani ... 5360y.html

Overreaction. It’s not that’s uncommon for cracks to be found in some area of a type over its lifetime. It’s a testament to the processes in place that these are discovered and fixed before they become a safety issue or cause a catastrophic failure. The A380 had cracks in its wings and you didn’t hear calls for the entire fleet to be grounded. The 737 is tainted in public perception by the MAX grounding, and for some reason the union is feeding into that. Can you imagine if the NG was grounded. That would be the vast majority of the domestic air system gone, would probably put VA out of its misery completely.

qf789 wrote:

The top 20 either unserved or underserved domestic routes



https://twitter.com/annaaero/status/118 ... 60416?s=20

For more refer to

https://www.anna.aero/2019/10/30/iata-s ... -revealed/

A few seem like good A220 routes!

I could see value in QF going down the 220/320/321/321LR path, alignment with JQ group would allow a lot of flexibility to move aircraft around to match market shifts, not to mention significant scale and purchase power. Question is does QF want twin aisles for SYD-MEL-BNE for turn times, and capacity for increased utilisation. How would the pilots agreement be impacted particularly at JQ?

How many NEOs does the Jetstar group have on other, on top of the unallocated 321LR for the Qantas group? Pricing could be bundled into a 350 order. But equally so could max with a 789/777 order. Or 220/320 797/789 350/380?

SMH also says all of Qantas 737s subject to short-term inspection (over 20k cycles) will have been inspected by tomorrow.. it has no aircraft in the 30k+ category.

So this sounds like typical union fear mongering.
Sometimes I wonder if these officials would prefer no jobs at all for their members.

qf789 wrote:

Last nights QF9 PER-LHR got cancelled, aircraft taxied out but never departed and returned to the gate

Wednesdays QF10 also did not leave London (VH-ZND)

tullamarine wrote:

qf2220 wrote:

qf789 wrote:

The top 20 either unserved or underserved domestic routes

Ugh noisy presentation - though interesting how much Canberra appears above the line. Id imagine that airpot costs are baked into these figures?

Canberra is a comparatively small city so the ability to add routes with any sort of decent frequency is limited. Of course, airlines like TT or JQ could add seasonal beach routes to CNS etc during school holidays but this would probably mean flights are only well occupied going one way or the other so the fare would need to be higher and probably uncompetitive against a one-stop option via SYD or BNE.

The only thing re JQ is that QF won't let them anywhere near CBR. Have no doubt JQ could run a few non Gov/Corporate routes even at a few days a week, but there really hasn't been the appetite for it.

VA seems to have held on with their CBR-OOL for a few years now

Does anyone know how TT does in CBR being the sole LCC?

a320fan wrote:

openskies88 wrote:

Qantas engineers union is calling for the airlines' entire fleet of B737s to be grounded following the discovery of cracks in the pickle forks of a second aircraft.

Is this a reasonable request, or an overreaction? Qantas has not yet confirmed there were cracks found in a second B737.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/compani ... 5360y.html

Overreaction. It’s not that’s uncommon for cracks to be found in some area of a type over its lifetime. It’s a testament to the processes in place that these are discovered and fixed before they become a safety issue or cause a catastrophic failure. The A380 had cracks in its wings and you didn’t hear calls for the entire fleet to be grounded. The 737 is tainted in public perception by the MAX grounding, and for some reason the union is feeding into that. Can you imagine if the NG was grounded. That would be the vast majority of the domestic air system gone, would probably put VA out of its misery completely.

Didnt VA complete their inspection of the entire 73 fleet and found no cracks?

a320fan wrote:

Can you imagine if the NG was grounded. That would be the vast majority of the domestic air system gone, would probably put VA out of its misery completely.

I mean, its not that hard to imagine, given it has actually happened before, to the entire QF fleet, for reasons unrelated to safety, and was less than 10 years ago...

downdata wrote:

Didnt VA complete their inspection of the entire 73 fleet and found no cracks?

Believe both QF and VA are inspecting any over 22k cycles (which was mandated by Boeing within the next 1000 cycles).

VA at 0/19 and QF now at 2/30 something.
From the pickled for thread globally it seems to be running at about 5% so both results within an expected outcome.

downdata wrote:

a320fan wrote:

Can you imagine if the NG was grounded. That would be the vast majority of the domestic air system gone, would probably put VA out of its misery completely.

I mean, its not that hard to imagine, given it has actually happened before, to the entire QF fleet, for reasons unrelated to safety, and was less than 10 years ago...

A global grounding of 737NG would be catastrophic for the industry everywhere not only Australia with massive financial losses probably sending a huge number of airlines broke not least the 5 largest US airlines (DL/AA/UA/WN/AS) simultaneously.

Having said that, it is unlikely. There has been a directive issued and airlines are checking affected aircraft. As has been pointed out, VA found no faults and QF has only found one. It appears there is an issue but it can be identified and corrected; grounding would be an inappropriate response.

tullamarine wrote:

downdata wrote:

a320fan wrote:

Can you imagine if the NG was grounded. That would be the vast majority of the domestic air system gone, would probably put VA out of its misery completely.

I mean, its not that hard to imagine, given it has actually happened before, to the entire QF fleet, for reasons unrelated to safety, and was less than 10 years ago...

A global grounding of 737NG would be catastrophic for the industry everywhere not only Australia with massive financial losses probably sending a huge number of airlines broke not least the 5 largest US airlines (DL/AA/UA/WN/AS) simultaneously.

Having said that, it is unlikely. There has been a directive issued and airlines are checking affected aircraft. As has been pointed out, VA found no faults and QF has only found one. It appears there is an issue but it can be identified and corrected; grounding would be an inappropriate response.

It’s worth noting also, carriers have a further seven months to complete the inspections - from the article I read both QF and VA will be finished by tomorrow we’ll ahead of the mandated seven months.

I honestly can’t understand what angle the LAME Union Are going for with QF? Publicly stating their support seems simply militant and damaging to the QF brand. Internal collaboration would be a far better strategy- any idea what they are hoping to achieve? Or their standard line only Australians can maintain aircraft - everyone else is unsafe?

Please continue discussion in Australian Aviation Thread - November 2019

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