Airlines
Qantas and Virgin tweak networks as Qatar A380 arrives in Sydney
September 23rd 2016
Australia’s two long-haul airlines, Qantas Airways and Virgin Australia (VA), this week announced several important network changes. Read More » Qantas is to resume daily nonstop services between Melbourne and Tokyo’s Narita from December 16, following an eight-year hiatus, and coinciding with the withdrawal from the route of Qantas’ low-cost subsidiary, Jetstar, on February 25, 2017. Jetstar will continue to operate direct services from the Gold Coast and Cairns to Narita and from Cairns to Osaka.
Qantas International and Qantas Freight CEO, Gareth Evans, said it was “a boom time for tourism and business travel” between Australia and Japan, although he did not explain why Jetstar is withdrawing from a market where business was flourishing.
However, the switch from four-weekly Jetstar B787-8 services, seating 335 passengers, to daily Qantas A330-300 flights accommodating 297 passengers is a 55% capacity increase for the group’s Japanese business.
Japanese visitors to Australia grew 17% in 2016 but the number of Australians travelling to Japan rose by 24%. The resumption of Qantas flights between Melbourne and Narita adds to Qantas’ daily Sydney-Haneda and Brisbane-Narita services. Qantas is refocusing on Asia. “We lifted Qantas’ capacity on Asian routes by 17% last financial year, so this is very much part of a larger pivot to Asia,” Evans said.
Qantas rival, John Borghetti-led Virgin Australia (VA), on Tuesday said it would resume five-weekly Melbourne-Los Angeles B777-300ER flights from April 4 after it dropped the route in October 2014, a period that coincided with the arrival of United Airlines.
Virgin Australia is facing a shortage of aircraft capable of flights of more than 12-13 hours. It will cancel its three times a week Sydney-Abu Dhabi B777 route from February 4 and reduce its Brisbane-Los Angeles service from daily to six times a week.
VA alliance partner and shareholder, Etihad Airways, will replace VA’s Abu Dhabi service with three additional B777 frequencies on its own metal, maintaining a double daily service offering. VA will launch a thrice-weekly Perth-Abu Dhabi route from June 9, complementing Etihad’s daily B787-9 flight.
Next year is shaping up as a milestone 12 months for VA’s international network expansion. The carrier has said it would launch flights between Australia and Hong Kong and Beijing from June 1, 2017, following the acquisition by Hainan Airlines parent, HNA Group, of an initial 13% equity in the carrier in May, for $114 million.
In other Australasian updates, Qatar Airways this week switched from the B777-300ER to the A380 on its daily Sydney-Doha route, a significant capacity increase. “From the moment we inaugurated service to Sydney earlier this year, we have been welcomed with open arms,” Qatar CEO, Akbar Al Baker, said in a statement. “We are pleased to respond in kind, with the introduction of the A380 service to Sydney.” The oneworld carrier launched its Sydney route in March.
As Orient Aviation reported last week, Qatar Airways’ overall loads to its four Australian destinations (Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth) in May and June were relatively weak, especially on the inbound sectors from Doha. In May, the carrier filled 48.9% of seats from Doha to Australia and 83.8% on the return flights. This improved to 60.5% and 89.1% in June.
