The Asian plans come as executives become increasingly bullish about Qantas International's return to profitability in 2015 and growth prospects for the mainline international operations from 2016 as it brings in new fuel-efficient Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners
I think Dreamliners is the active word there - as someone else said with QF fleet planning the only aeroplanes will the the paper ones flying around the board room! Have a look at the current fleet - where will this expansion come from? The B788s destined for JQ? The deferred B789's? The deferred A380 "hub busters" that you buy before leaving your slot constrained hub? The reliable but ageing B744 A330 and B763 fleet with interiors and products that are already uncompetetive in their markets? When were those refits due on the QFi A330 fleet again?
It believes the new planes, coupled with the right cost base, could allow potential new operations to Europe with partner Emirates as well as increased Asian services to destinations such as China and India.
What new planes? Cost base would seem to imply that QFi think they can find a lower cost base than in China or India, good luck with that! COnsider the agre of the fleets, tax treatments and cost of doing business in Australia vs other contries.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and Qantas International chief executive Simon Hickey conceded it would take time to fill the seats, and Mr Joyce said it was expected seat factors, the percentage of seats filled by paying passengers, would take a hit in the next few months.
In other words - all of QFi competitors SG CX and Scoot etc will not take this lying down. Expect fares and yields to drop further.
But the executives believe the demand is there and Qantas can now better serve it with services that include double daily flights from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. "Now we've got the right times," Mr Hickey said. "For example, I was talking to someone and if they wanted to go up just for dinner overnight it would take three nights away.
"Now they can go up in the day, have their dinner and they can get back that night if they have an early dinner."
As others have said - a ridiculous statement with SQ and CX having much better frequencies and products between SYD/MEL/BNE and SIN/HKG for the sort of market that would "pop up to HK for a dinner". And if you live in CNS/ADL & PER for example - whom has better timing and connections to get to and from SIN and HKG and elsewhere in Asia?
Mr Hickey said the new Singapore lounge heralded a new approach to travellers that was about showing them Qantas understood business people travelling to Australia.
It would offer pre-flight meals and allow passengers to sleep on the six-hour trip to Australia.
No argument that a good lounge helps and pre-flight meals are a good idea but suspect the journalist misunderstood the six-hour trip to Australia on QFi, surely Simon Hickey would know how long a flight between BNE/SYD/MEL and SIN takes.
The Qantas International boss said part of the Asian strategy was to provide connections that would allow travellers to return directly to Australia without needing to go back to a hub. He cited the example of a passenger who travelled to Singapore, then connected to Tokyo with Japan Airlines before returning home directly.
"If I was flying Singapore Airlines I would be flying back to Singapore and taking what connections I could get -- that's a massive differentiator of service to Asia that no one else can provide."
True - if you live in SYD, but what would a passenger do if they lived/worked in PER and wanted to fly to SIN or HKG and then Japan and then how do they fly home? Any guesses?
The working group is looking at taking advantage of the Jetstar network and deciding which product characteristics Qantas International customers would like to see on the low-cost carrier's network. Qantas has been looking at moves by Lufthansa to move its short-haul services to a lower-cost model in what officials see as an emerging trend.
Mr Joyce said this could be a "win-win" for both carriers as it would provide traffic that would not normally travel with Jetstar without changing the Jetstar model and affecting its cost base.
Very confusing statement and am unsure if this is anything more than a "thought bubble", even if it has something to do with QFi Asia Strategy - if the strategy is to dump QFi passengers onto various JQ Asia subsidiaries then perhaps they had better understand their market and maybe allow some baggage to be checked through, or maybe some sort of recognition of status? Or are they suggesting that the JQ asian partners are serious competitors to other Asian airlines in customer service and product?
He said this would allow Qantas international to take advantages of Jetstar joint ventures in Japan and Hong Kong and an expanding Asian network.
Jetstar Hong Kong has yet to launch and Mr Joyce said recent changes in the Chinese government were still working their way through the system.
Lets see how the JV's in SE Asia, Japan and HK go first, and it seems that no-one has learned anything about doing business in Asia if they are still talking to the Chinese government.
