eminere
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- Feb 1, 2014
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From AusBT:
Unless there was a set time by which you had to arrive in AKL, why wouldn't you choose EK over JQ (or QF, for that matter)? The gulf between EK's A380 and QF's B738 hard product is already wide as it is, let alone a further downgrade to JQ's A320.
Qantas will axe up to 15 daily trans-Tasman flights from October, slashing services from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to Auckland. Up to half of those routes will be handed over to low-cost offshoot Jetstar as Qantas continues its cost-cutting campaign. Qantas says it is moving to a seasonally-driven schedule geared more closely to the different demands of business and leisure travellers. There will be three fewer Qantas flights a week during the peak season but 15 less across the low season. From October 26 Qantas will cancel one daily Melbourne-Auckland flight and one daily Sydney-Auckland flight, while also trimming the Brisbane-Auckland timetable to five flights a week. Jetstar will step in with six new weekly Melbourne-Auckland services and a new weekly Sydney-Auckland flight, but will also axe its thrice-weekly Adelaide-Auckland service from August 24.
The trans-Tasman corridor is Australia's most popular international route, with a total of 2.5 million travellers from both Australia and New Zealand crossing the pond each year. Stepping down to to all-economy Jetstar flights are unlikely to please corporate travellers who book into Qantas business class. But there's little choice in it for travellers leaning towards the Virgin Australia/Air New Zealand alliance, as most of those airlines' flights also forego a business class cabin. However, Virgin Australia is expected to move to take advantage of Qantas' cuts. Earlier this year Virgin Australia CEO John Borghetti revealed plans to take the trans-Tasman alliance with Air New Zealand to a new level. "Trans-Tasman is in good shape and the alignment with Air New Zealand has been nothing short of superb" he told Australian Business Traveller, "but the best thing about that is there is still a lot more that we can do together, and you will see that happen over the next nine months or so." In July 2013 Qantas pledged to maintain "existing capacity on trans-Tasman routes that both Qantas and Emirates fly" as a condition of approval for its partnership with Emirates, and the airline says it will continue to comply with that requirement. “As part of our transformation program, Qantas is becoming more dynamic and more flexible in responding to market conditions" said Qantas International CEO Simon Hickey. "This has seen us take advantage of seasonal opportunities, like the Perth to Auckland service we started last summer. On the flip side, we’ll reduce flights at times of the year when demand naturally drops back."
Unless there was a set time by which you had to arrive in AKL, why wouldn't you choose EK over JQ (or QF, for that matter)? The gulf between EK's A380 and QF's B738 hard product is already wide as it is, let alone a further downgrade to JQ's A320.
