Qantas axes regional routes

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Soundguy

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News from Qantas today, they are gonna to kill off some regional Qantaslink routes in SA (to Kingscote & to Port Lincoln June 28) and in TAS (to Burnie July 31). Apparently these routes have been less than half full of late, which is understandably a problem. SA is such a backward place, looks like Adelaide will be the sole remaining Qantas destination here.

What a bummer for me; had a return flight booked ADL to KGS on July 1st, return 2nd. Actually I was chasing the 20 SC's as much as anything else as by that date I will need just 15 to reach Gold for the 1st time. Wonder if I can wangle a deal with them??


PS This is not actually my first post, I was posting a bit back in 2005 & lurking a bit since but totally lost my login details so decided to start over. Thanks for the excellent advice you folk regularly give here....
 
Mal said:
I did want to travel on the QF ADL-KGI route at some stage. Oh well. Another one to cross off the list as "now impossible".
Very sad news considering this route was actually the cheapest $/SC remaining in Australia.

PLO and KGC were only added as a Qantaslink routes earlier this year. I did the ADL-PLO trip in February and this was very nice. Should have done the ADL-KGC trip while I had the chance. Anyway....

Dropping the MEL-BWT route I cannot understand as there are 3 flights per day and could have easily reduced to 2 flights or even 1 day to maintain the destination and the flight capacities. BWT was a good alternative stopover in Tasmania and now we are reduced to 3 with QF. Unfortunately Tasmania has JQ written all over it!
 
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This is really not that surprising. PLO & KGC were new destinations only added this year. They are Rex destinations through and through, and I imagine QF must have had a difficult job capturing the market especially with lower frequencies (PLO 7 daily returns on ZL vs 4 on QF & KGC with 3 on ZL vs 1 on QF). Similarly BWT is a prime Rex destination since they pulled out of DPO some time ago. It will interesting to see if they will increase their frequency into DPO to pick up some of the flack.

BTW - to avoid confusion KGI = Kalgoorlie and QF Link dropped the ADL-KGI route some years ago now!
 
JohnK said:
Very sad news considering this route was actually the cheapest $/SC remaining in Australia.
I'll miss ducking across to KGC on a weekend for a meal at the Ozone pub.
You guys reckon "Earn them short and burn them long". You can't get much shorter than ADL-KGC. 1,000 points and 10 SC's for barely 20 mins in the air and around $68. I guess it was too good to last.
 
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Qantas cuts another blow to Tasmania

Here is a news story for anyone who has missed it. Some of the QF public relations from the QF website is repeated.

news.ninemsn.com.au said:
Qantas cuts another blow to Tasmania
Thursday Jun 15 19:07 AEST

A decision by Qantas to scrap its flights to Burnie is yet another blow for a region already reeling from the demise of the Spirit of Tasmania III, the Tasmanian Greens say.

Qantas Group regional airlines general manager Narendra Kumar announced Qantas would cease flights to the north-west Tasmanian city on July 31.

Mr Kumar said patronage on the Burnie route had dropped 20 per cent over the past two years, and given the current environment of escalating fuel prices the airline could not continue to absorb the loss.

The announcement comes just 10 days after the government's decision to scrap the Sydney to Devonport ferry service, which encouraged tourists to visit the north-west coast.


More...
 
I was dismayed last year when QF discontinued services into and out of Ballina. Up until then, since the demise of AN, there had been four QF services daily departing for SYD, especially the 0630 sevice which catered for biz travel and the the 1700 service to SYD. Admittedly, JQ began a daily service with an A320 to cater for the tourist market. DJ was also flying once daily. I suppose this might sound like a whinge, but apart from the ZL flights there was nothing much for the business traveller. Things have looked up in Ballina with the introduction of a thrice-weekly JQ A320 service direct to MEL. You ought to see the very modern 10 year old terminal at Ballina when there a DJ 737 and a JQ A320 arrive at once. Reminds me of the Singapore MRT at peak hour.

I do feel particularly sorry for places like Burnie and Kangaroo Island losing their services and I hope that this is not a permanent thing. However, like everything else today, the marketplace rules.
 
Still don't know what the big deal is, OK some minor destinations where a few people can't earn FF points. But Burnie, Kangaroo Island, Port Lincoln & Ballina still have respectable and frequent services operated by Rex, and Rex do interline with NZ, SQ, DJ & others.

On the flipside, Rex are pulling out of Armidale next month as well, leaving it to QF. That's business. As we are all well aware airlines are not charities.

Longer term, it sounds like Qantas Link is happy to handover these "30 seater" markets to Rex so that they can concentrate on eventually operating only 50/70 seat Dash 8's to higher demand destinations, leaving the low seat high frequency routes to Rex, who would surely have lower operating costs, and probably still make decent $$ on them.
 
dajop said:
Still don't know what the big deal is, OK some minor destinations where a few people can't earn FF points. But Burnie, Kangaroo Island, Port Lincoln & Ballina still have respectable and frequent services operated by Rex, and Rex do interline with NZ, SQ, DJ & others.
It would be nice to earn QF SC's and FF points to some of these minor destinations. You can't earn on Rex. Now in ADL there is no choice of short status runs.

I was given some information by a Qantaslink employee in February and it appears to be correct. This is not the end. There will be mor changes.
 
I think QFLink would be struggling to compete with Jetstars fares out of LST... The best fare you can get out of NW Coast is about 115 usually, compared to Jetstar at 59 or so... Given alot of NW coasters could hitch a ride to LST with friends etc, wouldn't be a suprise that people would be doing this.

With the A320's now in place and direct services to Bris, Syd and Mel along with the daily QF 73H flight, QF group is doing quite well out of LST these days and I feel it could just be a northern consolidation of operating hubs...
 
jakeseven7 said:
along with the daily QF 73H flight...

Well actually, that's going as well, apparently only getting 60% load factors. Being replaced by double daily Dash 8's, which makes sense. The 73H operated a cough (ie business unfriendly) timetable, and few leisure flyers are going to pay $130 when they go can go on JQ for $59, points or no points - unless doing connexions on a throughfare.
 
JohnK said:
It would be nice to earn QF SC's and FF points to some of these minor destinations. You can't earn on Rex. Now in ADL there is no choice of short status runs.

I was given some information by a Qantaslink employee in February and it appears to be correct. This is not the end. There will be mor changes.

Hopefully QF will start flying ADL-OLP, its about the only BHPB town they dont fly to at present.
 
dajop said:
Well actually, that's going as well, apparently only getting 60% load factors. Being replaced by double daily Dash 8's, which makes sense. The 73H operated a cough (ie business unfriendly) timetable, and few leisure flyers are going to pay $130 when they go can go on JQ for $59, points or no points - unless doing connexions on a throughfare.


Yes I heard that..annoying...- so there will be 2 QF Link flights a day out of LST?

Anyway I disagree that the 73H was a cough timetable - it was good for business, certainly all the business people I deal with in LST used it frequently - it got you to Melbourne in time for morning meetings and even an decent connection to Syd/Ad/Bris. The return flight could have been a bit earlier though. Hopefully they maintain the morning red-eye as its really handy for international connection flights for many Tasmanians. Guess there just wasn't enough of them, and the LST market is fairly price senstive - they love their Jetstar... lol
 
JohnK said:
Now in ADL there is no choice of short status runs.

There's none within NZ either. Even on sale the best fares are around NZ$100, add in fuel surcharge and its not worthwhile as a run - not that the route and schedule provides many opportunities locally.
 
jakeseven7 said:
Anyway I disagree that the 73H was a cough timetable - it was good for business, certainly all the business people I deal with in LST used it frequently

From a LST perspective I'll concede it's OK. But from the MEL perspective it's no good at all. I've had a few meetings in LST, and really couldn't justify an O/N there just so I can fly QF, so always fly DJ instead (I think on one trip I did come out of DPO & flew QF, because it fit better than hanging round waiting for a DJ flight).
 
Qantas withdrawal sparks fears for Devonport services

Life after QF!

news.yahoo.com said:
Qantas withdrawal sparks fears for Devonport services

There is a push to raise the profile of the Devonport Airport, as Tasmania's north-west deals with two major blows to tourism.

Qantas says rising fuel costs and declining passenger numbers are to blame for its decision to scrap its six daily Qantaslink flights in and out of Burnie.

The news closely follows the decision to end Spirit of Tasmania III sailings between Sydney and Devonport.

More...
 
Rex plans to meet shortfall

Rex to the rescue!

news.yahoo.com said:
Rex plans to meet shortfall
Monday June 19, 10:52 AM

Regional Express (Rex) says it will take steps to ensure capacity meets demand on routes Qantaslink has withdrawn from.

Late last week Qantas said it would cut services to Port Lincoln and Kangaroo Island in South Australia and Burnie in Tasmania following a network review.

Rex said five of its new aircraft due in service before the end of the year might be used on those routes.

'"We will monitor the situation closely and will increase frequencies should the situation justify it. Serving our existing network will take absolute priority over our expansion plans," Rex Managing Director Geoff Breust said.

More...
 
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