Lots of new QF flights to the USA/South America,

[serfty]

Definitely better for immediate hotel checkin but still early enough to get to LAS, SEA, SFO etc. Has anyone else arrived in LAX early to mid-arvo to comment on what clearing customs is like at that hour?


...

Only off AirNZ at T2 so not relavant. (Times were non long.)

 

[jimmylikesitwet]

This is definitely good news for MEL customers. Extra capacity in the next 6 months from both Qantas and United on MEL-LAX should help keep prices down even with Virgin's odd decision to pull out of the route. I like the option of an afternoon departure from MEL and an earlier departure from LAX too. Nice work Qantas.

 

[Danger]

I like the news.

Did JFK ever have an F Equipped aircraft flying there? Was looking at F awards there the other day and the option is to burn 194k points and go QF F to LAX and then QF J to JFK, or EK F to DXB and EK F to JFK :-/ The current raft of changes probably make that decision even easier.

Yes. QF 107/108 did have F when it was operated by 747.

 

[Lonely Flyer]

Love the QF 95 timing but not super happy about it being a 747. First world problem maybe?

The 747 will always be first in my heart other than the Cheese and Kisses and kids.

 

[pauly7]

It's great news for Melbourne now especially since VA pulled out of MEL-LAX. We will have 10 flights a week on QF. I like the new option of a 5.30pm departure. Also good from a spotters perspective as we currently don't have a permanent 747 flight here.

Agreed - more reward seats available happy days.

 

[oz74]

The 747 will always be first in my heart other than the Cheese and Kisses and kids.

I can understand that. The 747 is a very iconic plane. I just prefer the 380 on longer trips.

I do enjoy getting on a 747 from LAX to JFK.

 

[Flyerqf]

The new SYD-LAX flights seem to tie up well with JNB, so some good aircraft utilization.
- QF64 arrives from JNB at 1405, QF17 departs to LAX at 1730.

So this would mean
- 3 aircraft SYD-LAX/JNB
- 2 aircraft BNE-LAX-JFK
- 1 aircraft MEL-LAX
- 1 aircraft SYD-SCL
- 1 aircraft SYD-HKG
......leaving only 1 aircraft as an operational spare or seasonal capacity increases.

Unless JNB gets reduced to something like 4xwk, then I'd say goodbye to the 744 to NRT.

I agree - NRT will become A333. There are still 3 A332 frames due back into service at Qantas this year with only HNL (4pw) and SIN (3pw) earmarked for these frames. If NRT doesn't go to A330, there will be slack in the 330 fleet, especially given they QF have been pulling A330 off some East Coast to Perth flights.

They will still need at least 10 x 744 frames to operate the routes listed above, unless they cancel or down gauge flights during heavy maintenance. The extra Santiago flight pw means two frames will be required on Saturdays.

 

[Mattg]

This looks like good news. Would be good to see some new routes (or old ones re-instated) too.

Great aircraft utilisation with the re-timing of the SYD-LAX flights. It makes sense to have the A380 connecting to the JFK flight, and the 747 doing the evening flight. And as someone mentioned they can use the aircraft that comes in from JNB for the new QF17.

QF have had 1 daily afternoon 747 arrival in SYD, which would presumably form QF21 to NRT but on days when QF28 from SCL arrives, they would have had an extra 747 overnight in SYD. I'm not sure how QF21/22 will work with these changes, now that presumably the QF64 will form QF17. SCL-SYD will be 4x weekly, therefore on 4 days per week there will be a plane in the evening available to fly to Japan, but what about the other 3 days? My guess is QF21/22 will become 4x weekly 747 and 3x weekly A333, perhaps using the A330 that arrives from HNL. Or they could do a morning departure to Tokyo, but I thought the night flights were part of QF's strategy to appeal to the Japanese market and differ QF from JL. And not that I want to entertain the thought, but I guess another possibly is that it would be handed to JQ...

Interesting that they chose to operate 3 extra MEL-LAX flights per week, rather than introduce a new 3x weekly service between Australia and the US using this extra capacity. They could have instead started flying SYD-SFO, BNE-DFW or SYD-YVR (in order of most to least likely) 3x weekly.

While we're on the topic of QF utilising their aircraft better and making enhancements to their routes, here's a few free suggestions for QF:

• Re-open the PER-SIN route using 737s Monday to Friday and A330s which are usually used on weekday trans-con flying on Saturday and Sunday.
• Why does PER-AKL have to be just over Christmas?
• There has been some suggestion on here that QF should start flying to KUL. Perhaps QF81 (SYD-SIN) could continue to KUL, picking up passengers off QF35 & QF51 (and hopefully a re-instated QF77!) and returning in time to connect to the QF36/52.
• Could they send the 747 which sits in NRT all day somewhere? Not sure what fifth freedom rights QF would have ex. Japan but perhaps ICN or PEK.
• While I'm at it, how about CBR-AKL, PER-DXB-BER/CDG or ADL-anywhere?

 

[Aussie_flyer]

A tag flight SIN-KUL would never happen when they have loads of 3K flights with QF flight numbers flying the 40 minute flight. It's just not economically sensible.

Also, a new destination like SFO and YVR would add huge amount of costs to a 3x weekly flight, adding capacity/frequency on MEL-LAX adds very little cost since the infrastructure is already in place at both airports.

 

[SpudOz]

As pathetic as this might sound, I would be grateful for any QFI in and out of Perth...we seemed to be forgotten in the West

 

[Mattg]

As pathetic as this might sound, I would be grateful for any QFI in and out of Perth...we seemed to be forgotten in the West

I don't think that sounds pathetic at all. In fact I think a lot of people share that opinion.

 

[Himeno]

Or they could do a morning departure to Tokyo, but I thought the night flights were part of QF's strategy to appeal to the Japanese market and differ QF from JL.

JL have a morning ex-SYD flight, and it appears to be booked out quite often. Both QF and JL ex-NRT flights leave within 10 mins of each other. I was on QF22 last night. Oversold again.

And not that I want to entertain the thought, but I guess another possibly is that it would be handed to JQ...

They better not.

Could they send the 747 which sits in NRT all day somewhere? Not sure what fifth freedom rights QF would have ex. Japan but perhaps ICN or PEK.

The current traffic rights for Australian carriers to Japan allows:
Fifth freedom traffic rights on services to/from Narita Airport:
Fifth-freedom traffic rights for combination passenger/cargo services are exercisable at
certain intermediate and beyond points. In exercising these traffic rights, designated
airlines of Australia are restricted to seventy-nine (79.0) units (388 2.5 units, 744 2.0 units, 330 1.5 units, 787 1.0 unit) of capacity per week. The
Department of Infrastructure and Transport can be contacted for further details.

 

[avaction]

Does this mean there will be more Classic Award seats available to Sao Paulo? We are travelling to Sao Paulo to catch a cruise ship leaving 15 March 2015 and there are no available award seats (we have over 100,000 QF miles and 100,000 AA miles between us). Should I hold off buying tickets until after October 2014 (when the code share arrangement comes in for Santiago > Sao Paulo) and when will the extra QF flight to Santiago go on sale??

 

[Limewood]

As pathetic as this might sound, I would be grateful for any QFI in and out of Perth...we seemed to be forgotten in the West

As we are in Cairns. Why Qantas don't fly to HKG from here like they did years ago stumps most as the CX flights are chockers with flights daily. And HKG is great way from those in FNQ to Europe or USA. Cairns airport is totally under-utilised with International flights, but we guess with the multi M$ projects planned inc. AQUIOS and a new Uni. all that will change.

 

[Flyerqf]

As we are in Cairns. Why Qantas don't fly to HKG from here like they did years ago stumps most as the CX flights are chockers with flights daily. And HKG is great way from those in FNQ to Europe or USA.

Qantas don't fly to Europe via HKG. Without connecting traffic to Europe (like CX), I can't see this route being viable for Qantas, much like Perth to HKG wasn't viable without the connecting traffic.

Flights to the USA from Cairns would be faster via Brisbane, plus on Qantas metal all the way.

 

[Mr_Orange]

Flights to the USA from Cairns would be faster via Brisbane, plus on Qantas metal all the way.

Depends on where you are going. JFK, for example, is one stop via HKG with CX or two stops via BNE and LAX with QF.

 

[Flyerqf]

That's true. But why would Qantas start a Cairns to HKG route when they don't code share with HKG on the HKG to JFK route

EDIT: routing CNS-BNE-JFK is still faster than CNS-HKG-JFK

CNS-HKG would only work of there was enough O&D demand which I doubt there would be.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

As we are in Cairns. Why Qantas don't fly to HKG from here like they did years ago stumps most as the CX flights are chockers with flights daily. And HKG is great way from those in FNQ to Europe or USA. Cairns airport is totally under-utilised with International flights, but we guess with the multi M$ projects planned inc. AQUIOS and a new Uni. all that will change.

CX fly to their hub from CNS, QF fly to their hub from CNS.

 

[Mr_Orange]

That's true. But why would Qantas start a Cairns to HKG route when they don't code share with HKG on the HKG to JFK route

Couldn't agree more, I was just pointing out that there is a viable routing from CNS via HKG.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

This looks like good news. Would be good to see some new routes (or old ones re-instated) too.

Great aircraft utilisation with the re-timing of the SYD-LAX flights. It makes sense to have the A380 connecting to the JFK flight, and the 747 doing the evening flight. And as someone mentioned they can use the aircraft that comes in from JNB for the new QF17.

QF have had 1 daily afternoon 747 arrival in SYD, which would presumably form QF21 to NRT but on days when QF28 from SCL arrives, they would have had an extra 747 overnight in SYD. I'm not sure how QF21/22 will work with these changes, now that presumably the QF64 will form QF17. SCL-SYD will be 4x weekly, therefore on 4 days per week there will be a plane in the evening available to fly to Japan, but what about the other 3 days? My guess is QF21/22 will become 4x weekly 747 and 3x weekly A333, perhaps using the A330 that arrives from HNL. Or they could do a morning departure to Tokyo, but I thought the night flights were part of QF's strategy to appeal to the Japanese market and differ QF from JL. And not that I want to entertain the thought, but I guess another possibly is that it would be handed to JQ...

Interesting that they chose to operate 3 extra MEL-LAX flights per week, rather than introduce a new 3x weekly service between Australia and the US using this extra capacity. They could have instead started flying SYD-SFO, BNE-DFW or SYD-YVR (in order of most to least likely) 3x weekly.

While we're on the topic of QF utilising their aircraft better and making enhancements to their routes, here's a few free suggestions for QF:

• Re-open the PER-SIN route using 737s Monday to Friday and A330s which are usually used on weekday trans-con flying on Saturday and Sunday.
• Why does PER-AKL have to be just over Christmas?
• There has been some suggestion on here that QF should start flying to KUL. Perhaps QF81 (SYD-SIN) could continue to KUL, picking up passengers off QF35 & QF51 (and hopefully a re-instated QF77!) and returning in time to connect to the QF36/52.
• Could they send the 747 which sits in NRT all day somewhere? Not sure what fifth freedom rights QF would have ex. Japan but perhaps ICN or PEK.
• While I'm at it, how about CBR-AKL, PER-DXB-BER/CDG or ADL-anywhere?

I pretty much second your suggestions, particularly SYD > YVR.... But I've heard that QF could easily fill the plane ex SYD, but struggled to get bums on seats ex YVR, resulting in the return leg being unprofitable.

I'm thinking QF63/63 will be cut back from daily to perhaps 4-5 times per week, based on a few recent cancellations & the lack of a codeshare with SAA. That's my guess anyway,

QF21/22 will most likely stay daily, but a change to timing's could happen here, poor aircraft utilisation in NRT with the aircraft parked for 12+ hours per day.