BA to withdraw from services to Australia?

[markis10]

In a submission to Australia's competition regulator, British Airways said its 17-year alliance with Qantas had been a ‘‘vital aspect of BA’s ability to offer services and operate in the aviation sector’’ between Australia and Europe.
‘‘BA considers that it is increasingly challenging for an international airline to operate services on long-haul routes between the United Kingdom/Europe and Australia in the absence of such an alliance due to persistent excess capacity and the nature off the substantial fixed costs involved in their operation,’’ it said.

Read more: British Airways may pull plug on kangaroo route

 

[yohy?!]

interesting little factor to be thrown into the mix for the QF/EK ACCC approval no doubt

 

[KitKat]

Hope this does not happen.... have invested some $ in J flights next year with current sale

 

[Danger]

The way I read the article BA is - quite possibly with due reason - giving Qantas the finger for killing the alliance with this:

The airline also said in the submission that the ‘‘combination of Emirates, Qantas and Jetstar’’ would give the Middle Eastern airline ‘‘significant leverage’’ on trans-Tasman routes and ‘‘will minimise BA’s ability to provide competing services into and out of New Zealand’’.​

 

[ashleyn]

The way I read the article BA is - quite possibly with due reason - giving Qantas the finger for killing the alliance with this:

The airline also said in the submission that the ‘‘combination of Emirates, Qantas and Jetstar’’ would give the Middle Eastern airline ‘‘significant leverage’’ on trans-Tasman routes and ‘‘will minimise BA’s ability to provide competing services into and out of New Zealand’’.​

Yes indeed. Also serves them right for offering an inferior product for years.

 

[TheInsider]

BA's uptake on QF flights trans-tasman is very minimal. That is with the BA code on QF metal.

 

[dot]

BA have been wanting to get out of Australia for years, so I am not surprised by this at all. Logistically, Australia is a difficult destination for BA - they have to have staff pre-positioned in BKK and SIN to handle the second leg of the flights. Their staff (especially the ones with immediate family) are reluctant to do Australia trips because it means being away from home for much longer than any other destination they fly to (My BIL is a FO for BA on the 777 - I had a big chat with him about BA servicing Australia when I was saw him earlier in the year).

I do however think that the timing is odd - only three weeks ago, BA stated that they were committed to the Kangaroo route - see British Airways backs London-Singapore-Sydney 'Kangaroo Route' - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

 

[Andyzx]

I also think this would put additional pressure on the ACCC and a pity as we like the 747 J product and would love to try new F. Certainly if they do pull out or even partial services the price of J tickets to the UK and Europe will rise (or centainly less discounting)

 

[Andyzx]

Just another thought BA might bring their new 787 down under. Now that is something I will try...


EDIT: A380 to SIN and 787 to SYD and interesting conbination

 

[amaroo]

Yes indeed. Also serves them right for offering an inferior product for years.

Having flown BA F SYD-LHR-SYD I have to agree with this comment!

Take a gander at this British Airways route overview - FT Dashboard & you will see how little they think about servicing SYD with their new products......you could say the same thing about QF on many of their sectors

 

[dot]

According to AusBT.com today - BA will in fact not be pulling out of Australia:

British Airways confirms London-Singapore-Sydney 'Kangaroo Route' - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller

British Airways has pledged to continue flying the Sydney-Singapore-London route after its joint-venture partnership with Qantas concludes in March 2013, news which was broken by Australian Business Traveller last month following the Red Roo's proposed alliance with Emirates.

...

BA says it will contact passengers booked to travel after the end date for the Qantas-BA tie-up on 31 March 2013 if their flight schedules change.

But it's not a total breakup with the Red Roo: "British Airways is looking to maintain and develop numerous existing codeshares with Qantas in Asia and Europe as part of oneworld, and the airline is currently exploring options for when the JSA ends on March 31, 2013," BA said in a statement
.... (continues)

No mention of continuation of LHR-BKK-SYD though, so maybe that is getting axed in favour of a SYD-DOH-LHR via QR codeshare... (pure speculation on my part)

 

[yohy?!]

i suppose they could do it by halves and axe the sin-syd flights but keep the sin-lhr flights in the reverse of what QF has done with HKG and BKK

 

[markis10]

i suppose they could do it by halves and axe the sin-syd flights but keep the sin-lhr flights in the reverse of what QF has done with HKG and BKK

In some ways they already do that, with only half the services continuing on to Australia, without the protection of the JSA and codeshare traffic, I really cannot seem them being able to compete, already this year their load is 30% down year to year from the UK, with an inbound yield of 52% (using older figures than July as there was something on that month that shot the figures up )

No mention of continuation of LHR-BKK-SYD though, so maybe that is getting axed in favour of a SYD-DOH-LHR via QR codeshare... (pure speculation on my part)

BA announced they had would axe that last year (effective Mar this year http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...ustralia-flights/story-e6frg95x-1226119040341) and dont go further than BKK, which is the basis of the expectation that they will do the same for SIN.

 

[SteveJohnson]

i suppose they could do it by halves and axe the sin-syd flights but keep the sin-lhr flights in the reverse of what QF has done with HKG and BKK

Yeah I think that is exactly what they will do if they have to, although with Qantas re-timing its Singapore flights there'd be quite a bit of waiting time at Changi. Mind you there are far worse airports to be stuck at!

 

[ozmille]

new update on AusBT today, BA to continue LHR-SIN-SYD

 

[codash1099]

According to AusBT.com today - BA will in fact not be pulling out of Australia:

British Airways confirms London-Singapore-Sydney 'Kangaroo Route' - Flights | hotels | frequent flyer | business class - Australian Business Traveller


No mention of continuation of LHR-BKK-SYD though, so maybe that is getting axed in favour of a SYD-DOH-LHR via QR codeshare... (pure speculation on my part)

Except that QR do not seem to be keen on flying into SYD. Seems they consider the costs and curfew create too may problems.