Air Asia to fly to Geelong (AVV)

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dajop

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It seems that Air Asia will switch it's current KUL-MEL flights to Avalon (which depending on your point of view is Geelong's airport, or Melbourne's second or third commercial airport), towards the end of 2018.

As reported in SMH/Fairfax,

Victoria could have a second international airport by the end of this year, with Avalon Airport securing AirAsia to operate its first overseas services.

Avalon Airport airport and AirAsia will on Sunday announce that the Malaysian carrier will move its twice daily return service between Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport and Kuala Lumpur to Avalon.
....

Avalon and AirAsia believe the service could be operating by late 2018, it is understood.
 
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The fares are super low ex-MEL already, how much lower are they going to be...I predict another AVV LCC failure.
 
One suspects there may be a financial inducement, which could partly be used to reduce fares.

It will be interesting to see the outcome if it goes ahead, whether people will accept or object to the longer distance from central Melbourne.

I've caught the AVV Skybus and it wasn't bad, but that was a Saturday morning with little traffic.
 
It will be interesting to see the outcome if it goes ahead, whether people will accept or object to the longer distance from central Melbourne.

I've caught the AVV Skybus and it wasn't bad, but that was a Saturday morning with little traffic.

If they continue with current schedule, traffic into central Melbourne should not be too bad ... 9:20 arrival means traffic into MEL should be acceptable, but it wouldn’t want to be any earlier, and the morning departure means people would be going against peak hour. Late evenings of course should be OK.

For the morning arrivals, often MEL can be quite crowded in immigration etc so 20 mins extra transit could be made up for by faster immigration (if it is staffed correctly).

For the late evening MEL is going to be 15- 20 mins quicker. But in some ways when your overall journey is >10 hrs door to door , 20 mins is neither here nor there.
 
(if it is staffed correctly).

That will be another interesting point - how many staff/lanes considering only two flights a day, and how efficient will the customs/quarantine setup be.

But in some ways when your overall journey is >10 hrs door to door , 20 mins is neither here nor there.

I would suspect that for most people additional time becomes disproportionately impactful the longer the travel (regardless of % of overall travel time).
 
I would suspect that for most people additional time becomes disproportionately impactful the longer the travel (regardless of % of overall travel time).

I don’t think the issue with Avalon is time though. It’s the cost issue (of taxis) and the perception of time. Just did google maps from Chadstone - Tullamarine 45 mins right now , Avalon - 58 mins. That is neither here nor there. But on the godawfulboring Geelong Road it just feels to take forever to get there even though when you look at the time it’s only an extra 15 mins - it feels like at least an extra 30-45 mins vs Tulla.
 
I think this is very interesting - a lot of people i've encountered in Geelong / Surf Coast region use Air Asia to fly to/from other SE Asia destinations (eg. MNL) when fares get too high on direct services on other carriers to MEL. The surf coast / GOR is becoming increasing popular as a self-drive destination for foreign tourists so there is some advantage in arriving in AVV and heading straight to Geelong then GOR.

Pricing wise, one wonders if regular fares will be roughly the same as at MEL but a better yield for the airline (given equivalent patronage).

Also remembering that a fair % of passengers are "headline price" sensitive and wont care if arriving in AVV or MEL.


Agree with previous comments re: overall trip time possibly being similar even with 15min extra in car/taxi/bus.
 
Tulla is overcrowded, and Avalon is under-utilised. Sadly the opportunity has really been lost, but the best way to use both would have been to force all LCC operations to Avalon. It would be quite a busy place by now.
 
Tulla is overcrowded, and Avalon is under-utilised.

Completely agree that MEL is overcrowded, but only at certain times. MEL is actually very underutilized in the afternoon (1200-2000) and early morning times (0000-0600) from an International perspective.
 
Tulla is overcrowded, and Avalon is under-utilised. Sadly the opportunity has really been lost, but the best way to use both would have been to force all LCC operations to Avalon. It would be quite a busy place by now.

Yes as both airports are in private hands. AVV owner by Linfox group and MEL owned by consortium of fund managers. If you have an industry super fund your super most likely has a stake in MEL.
 
Completely agree that MEL is overcrowded, but only at certain times. MEL is actually very underutilized in the afternoon (1200-2000) and early morning times (0000-0600) from an International perspective.

It is quiet in the middle of the night, but quite busy in the afternoons. An aircraft slot is a slot...it makes no difference whether the aircraft is international or domestic. In any event, proper use of Avalon would mean that Tullamarine would not need an additional runway. So, how many billions would that save?
 
but quite busy in the afternoons. An aircraft slot is a slot...it makes no difference whether the aircraft is international or domestic.

Indeed, take this afternoon, between 4pm and 7pm there are 74 landings and 74 take offs. Not quite as busy as SYD I assume, but that's still approximately one movement every 75 seconds.
 
It is quiet in the middle of the night, but quite busy in the afternoons. An aircraft slot is a slot...it makes no difference whether the aircraft is international or domestic. In any event, proper use of Avalon would mean that Tullamarine would not need an additional runway. So, how many billions would that save?
Agree completely.

But when you have private interests in control of them, is it any surprise that it ends up the way it is..
 
Also remembering that a fair % of passengers are "headline price" sensitive and wont care if arriving in AVV or MEL.

Agree pax are price sensitive but depending on the search engine used it mightn't show AVV flights
 
Even though AVV might not be much further in travel time (although 55km or so from Melbourne CND as opposed to 21km for Tulla), the West Gate Bridge does not have a great reputation in the sense that eastern and southern suburbs Melburnians know or perceive it's often chockas.

While true for any road (or railway/airport), one accident on the freeway, West Gate Bridge or Transurban can see travel times by road balloon out.

One may be travelling against the peak on West Gate for some flights, but if coming from the east or southeast, one has to battle peak period traffic towards the city before using the 'against the flow' section.
 
One may be travelling against the peak on West Gate for some flights, but if coming from the east or southeast, one has to battle peak period traffic towards the city before using the 'against the flow' section.

This would presumably still be a problem for those travelling from the southeast (and many of those from the east) to Tullamarine?
 
Given the proximity of Lara station to Avalon could this be an alternative to the city via a quick shuttle bus to the station?
 
Given the proximity of Lara station to Avalon could this be an alternative to the city via a quick shuttle bus to the station?

Yes, especially now that the Geelong line has trains every 20 minutes or better on weekdays for daylight hours. Weekends: 40 minutes.

However one problem would be that if a private operator and unsubsidised, the fare needed to be charged would be too high for the short distance.

Does anyone know how successful the Geelong - Avalon shuttle bus is? I suspect 'not very.'
 
Even though AVV might not be much further in travel time (although 55km or so from Melbourne CND as opposed to 21km for Tulla), the West Gate Bridge does not have a great reputation in the sense that eastern and southern suburbs Melburnians know or perceive it's often chockas.

While true for any road (or railway/airport), one accident on the freeway, West Gate Bridge or Transurban can see travel times by road balloon out.

One may be travelling against the peak on West Gate for some flights, but if coming from the east or southeast, one has to battle peak period traffic towards the city before using the 'against the flow' section.

Agree about perceptions. Totally.

But in reality, basically all the problems you talk about often identically effect those coming from eastern and southern suburbs, irrespective of airport travelling to. If you look at it logically for those coming from E/SE, the critical difference (heading to airport) is what happens after the Bolte bridge turn off, not what happens before.

So "if coming from the east or southeast, one has to battle peak period traffic towards the city before using the 'against the flow' section", umm yes, but it's the same problem heading to the Tulla. And looking at the West Gates' perception that is chockas, if there are problems heading out on West Gate, then they often do flow through to the inbound traffic in the Domain Tunnel too ... and let's not forget the Tulla, doesn't exactly have the best record ...

For a proxy for travel from Bolte Bridge, google maps right now is showing 28 mins to Tulla and 37 mins to Avalon, from Caltex Kingsway (not far from westgate on ramp) . And if parking long term, almost invariably Tulla will take you longer, despite the extra 10 mins travel time.

(and obviously none of this applies if coming from northern, north western and north eastern suburbs)

In other words, AVV has big perception and therefore marketing problem ....
 
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