LH to Australia

[caaron]

Hi, I was reading the discussion on airliners.net the other day about the feasibility for Lufthansa to operate flight from FRA to Oz. In a nutshell, those anetters conclude that it's unlikely other European carriers apart from BA will enter Oz market soon due to high costs and, in particular, competitions.

Take a look here: airliners.net/aviation-forums/general_aviation/read.main/4834482/

I'm wondering, though, why QF still maintains its SYD-SIN-FRA route despite the fierce competition by many SE Asian and Middle Eastern carriers, high operating costs and requirement of at least 4 aircrafts to operate daily. IMHO, compared to QF, other carriers like TG, SQ, MH, EK, and EY offers more destinations and frequencies to the mainland EU.. In a long run, is QF gonna be profitable to operate with its own metal, let alone the high costs and aircraft requirement as mentioned.

Why not cut this route and codeshare with BA on LHR-FRA sector? Anyone can shed a light for me on this issue would be nice. Thanks.

caaron:mrgreen:

 

[markis10]

I believe loads on QF5 are very high and the destination serves as an alternate European entry point for those not wishing to go to LHR, as to codesharing with BA, the pitfalls were obvious in recent weeks with the strikes etc. Don't forget they codeshare with the trains in Germany (Deutsche Bahn)! Qantas codeshares out of LHR to 29 destinations.

Lufthansa has flown downunder before, as has KLM and others, and they found it unprofitable, this was before the middle east realized the oil was not going to last forever.

 

[medhead]

I'd say they keep the route open because it has high demand. The routes to LHR already have high demand. If they stopped servicing FRA then that's going to put upto another 800 people a day onto the route to LHR. So they'd then have to move aircraft to that route.

The other thing is demographics of australia. The 2006 census had the following results on ancestry for australians (as reported by wikipedia). About 12% of Australians are descended from that part of europe that is closer to FRA.

Australian (37.13%)
English (31.65%)
Irish (9.08%)
Scottish (7.56%)
Italian (4.29%)
German (4.09%)
Chinese (3.37%)
Greek (1.84%)
Dutch (1.56%)

Then, of course, there is the tourism factor. Besides "the mother country", I'd say Munich would be just about one of the most popular destinations for Australians but only for perhaps a month or so.

Overall, the popularity of Central/Southern Europe is also acknowledged by Jetstar talking about opening long haul routes to that area from Singapore. Even though they are looking likely to fly to asian destinations first.

 

[Must...Fly!]

SYD-SIN-FRA summed up in 3 words.

High loads
Freight

 

[PaulC83]

From the few times I have flown this route loads have definitely been high, and all times I have been sitting next to people attending conventions and fairs, as Frankfurt often holds many of these sort of things.

Add to that the fact it is the location of the European Central Bank and many other financial institutions, as well as the pre-mentioned freight, and the fact it is a hub to the rest of Europe, it is probably more popular than people would normally think.

 

[Timba-Jet]

I was on the SYD-SIN-FRA flight (Y) earlier this year. Flight was fairly fully on the SIN-FRA segment, and there was a noticebale change in passenger demographics during the SIN transit. Based on this 1 experience, seems alot of Germans are choosing QF to fly into SIN, rather than LF or other European airlines.

So the question would be, does Qantas provide a better or cheaper (or both) service into Asia for the Germans.

 

[mosanator]

And all these factors are a good thing. It gives you another port of entry (or departure in our case soon) to Europe when looking for reward flight redemption.

Really is nice and central, and with German railways code sharing makes it fantastic especially if you don't want to visit the UK or more precisely LHR

Just a clarification, it is only a two class service, yes??????

 

[newformula]

I flew QF5 SYD-FRA at the end if last year in J. Yes, it's a two class service... I flew on 23/4 and J was basically empty SIN-FRA which gave me the impression it's mostly a business route.