Network changes for Qantas as demand shifts

** FILE ** A Tuesday, July 24, 2007 file photo of the tail of a Qantas Boeing 767 in Sydney. Qantas announced they are closing their Maintenance Facility at Avalon, Melbourne, Friday, Nov. 8, 2013. (AAP Image/Paul Miller) NO ARCHIVING
By Anne Majumdar


Qantas will add even more seats on selected Asian routes from March 2016 and will trim its US schedule from April 2016 in response to shifting demand.

Earlier this month, the airline confirmed it would add more flights on its Sydney to Hong Kong and Perth to Singapore routes from December. It has followed that up with the announcement it will upgrade three of its seven weekly Melbourne to Hong Kong services from an Airbus A330 to a Boeing 747 from March increasing its total Hong Kong capacity by 2.5%. The A330 freed up by the changes will be used to add further capacity on another as yet undecided Asian route.

Meanwhile, the carrier will reduce its Sydney to Los Angeles services from 10 per week to seven per week from April 2016. This will coincide with the upping of services from Sydney to Dallas/Fort Worth from six times weekly to daily. Overall, this will mean one less Qantas flight to the US per day compared with its current schedule.

Chief executive Alan Joyce highlighted strong growth across Qantas’ Asian network, with the airline responding to that demand.

“For the past 18 months, we’ve been taking a more dynamic, agile approach across our international network and this is another example of that strategy,” he said.

“We’re still seeing strong demand on US routes, but capacity growth in the market will trend down from about 9% now to about 6% in 2015/16 as a whole.”

The airline stressed Qantas customers will still have a range of options for travel on the US route with American Airlines to commence operations on the Sydney to Los Angeles route from December, and Qantas to begin Sydney-San Francisco services also next month.

Meanwhile, Joyce was confident the lower dollar’s impact would be positive one, stoking demand for inbound travel to Australia rather than “dampening” outbound travel demand.

“Australians tend to compensate for a weaker currency by simply spending less when they are away, rather than changing their destination altogether,” he observed.

 

 

 

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