American Airlines confident it’s the “right time” to tackle Australia
American Airlines has insisted that its late entry on the US-Australia route has, in fact, come at the “right time”.
The carrier commenced Boeing 777-300ER services from Los Angeles to Sydney on December 19, as part of its wide-reaching strategic partnership with Qantas.
General manager Australia and New Zealand sales Simon Dodd admitted to Travel Weekly that AA had “taken its time” in deciding to enter the market for a number of reasons.
Perhaps most significant was the airline’s merger with US Airways at the end of 2013.
“The company is far more financially secure at the moment,” Dodd explained. “So making money and having money in the bank means that we can launch new routes.”
Then came the renegotiation of its long-term agreement with Qantas which dates back to 1989 and was among the world’s first codeshare arrangements.
“In June last year we announced a further deepening of that to a revenue sharing model so we can basically work as one airline across the Pacific,” he said.
The new terms were “critical” to AA entering the market, according to Dodd.
“All those key things lined up, along with the fact that we had the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft,” he said.
“We know that Australians have very high standards for air travel and we wanted to wait until we had the right product for that.”
The Boeing 777-300ER aircraft fit that bill, according to Dodd who highlighted its eight first class seats, lie-flat beds and all aisle access in business class as among its main advantages, marking the airline apart from its US rivals.
“So if you line all those things up, it was the right time to enter the route,” he said.
The airline deliberately picked the peak holiday season to launch the route to take advantage of the Christmas traffic and people heading off on ski trips.
“To get it launched when there’s a lot of traffic is advantageous to starting it off well,” Dodd said. “I believe it paid off well – we’re very happy so far with forward bookings.
“It’s an exciting time.”
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
aa airlines american airlines aviation qantas Simon Dodd usaLatest News
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