Qantas cuts flights from Perth to Melbourne, decreases capacity to Sydney

[grrofunger]

lol , you and your facts

let me have my outrage

 

[trixydoza]

utter bull****

time to try for a status match with VA

They will never disappoint you.

 

[swilk]

You put the aircraft where you can fill it. Loads transcon are low and trending lower with the slowdowns in the economy. Strange logic?

All of the recent flights transcon I have taken were full. Try and get an upgrade in the new J cabin - almost impossible. That is my experience.

 

[swilk]

You put the aircraft where you can fill it. Loads transcon are low and trending lower with the slowdowns in the economy. Strange logic?

Well by that logic they will put the old aircraft with 36 J seats on the east coast routes (36 is better than 28 or 12 isn't it?)

 

[Princess Fiona]

No it doesn't. There are more than one evening flights from MEL to PER. Which one has been cancelled? I hope it isn't QF653 which is convenient for after work and gets in at a civilised time. The earlier and later flights don't really suit me so might be less weekend trips to Perth for me.

As per the OP, the AusBT link posted by them has the cancelled flight ex-MEL

 

[Aussie_flyer]

All of the recent flights transcon I have taken were full. Try and get an upgrade in the new J cabin - almost impossible. That is my experience.

https://bitre.gov.au/publications/ongoing/domestic_airline_activity-monthly_publications.aspx

Load factors Perth to Melbourne and Sydney around 71%. Lower than the approx 78% on Mel/syd and syd/bne. Year on year show passenger numbers down 2.9% on Mel-Per and down 2.0% Perth - Sydney. Figures on Mel-Syd up 2.1% year on year (based on may '15)

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Why? The 737-800s cruise at pretty much the same speed as an Airbus.

I think it's more that 3 hours eastbound on a 737 is just bearable... but 4+ hours westbound (into headwinds) means a wide-body is far more comfortable.

 

[Melburnian1]

Aussie_flyer, those two per cent reductions are likely to become even 'worse' (as in 'higher'.) It is further evidence as to how the LPG construction phase is coming to an end (or has ended) while jobs in the iron ore part of the mining sector must also be decreasing.

I'm surprised that the figures don't already show a five or six per cent decrease in transcontinental passengers given the iron ore price. I agree that many passengers will not like the 737 for the transcon run. A great opportunity for VA to showcase its product to more (ex) QF patrons.

 

[mannej]

Aussie_flyer, those two per cent reductions are likely to become even 'worse' (as in 'higher'.) It is further evidence as to how the LPG construction phase is coming to an end (or has ended) while jobs in the iron ore part of the mining sector must also be decreasing.

I'm surprised that the figures don't already show a five or six per cent decrease in transcontinental passengers given the iron ore price. I agree that many passengers will not like the 737 for the transcon run. A great opportunity for VA to showcase its product to more (ex) QF patrons.

The article you quoted in the VA results thread suggests that VA may be throwing too much capacity at certain routes.

Could that not be suggesting that the 737's that VA already use to and from PER may become more prevalent?

 

[Melburnian1]

Fair point, mannej - anything is possible. If VA did what you suggest, it would be interesting to see if it explicity stated that it was going to do this (say from the October 'end of east coast daylight saving' timetable changes) or whether it just 'crept in' (hoping that no one would notice except the small, 'in the know' and savvy minority like you who contribute to or read forums such as this.)

While VA has to find a use for its 'XFCs' and above, if I recall, of the six all but one are leased (though obviously I don't know how flexible the leasing arrangements are and whether a jet or two could be returned to the lessor if VA determined it had no use for one or more, which would be a major concession given the time and dollars it spent in delivering arguably the best transcontinental airline 'product.')

Perhaps, in a counter-intuitive sort of way, VA may be experiencing slightly less of a decline than QF on MEl and SYD to and from PER because VA may rely more on so-called 'independent' travellers given that QF claims to have 80 per cent of the corporate market (VA from memory contests that claim.) So one might expect QF to be suffering a little more from mining companies that were previously booking larger numbers of their employees across the Bight (or Nullabor.)

 

[baggyred]

Bugger... I usually get the 5pm flight. Twas on it last Friday and J was absolutely full.

I would have thought QF777 would have been a a better flight to dump - given the 773 still allows most business workers to get a large part of the day in

 

[JohnK]

More international routes can only be a good thing!

It would be good but not likely that it will happen anytime soon.