Rumours about Qantas flying direct to Rio de Janeiro?

[nowhereman]

Has anyone heard rumours about Qantas flying direct to Rio de Janeiro?
This might be handy with the 2014 World Cup around the corner.

 

[Hvr]

It's only a whimsical notion. Though it would be a useful charter flight for the world cup, maybe sell the fare in conjunction with tickets.

Oh and welcome to AFF.

 

[ReLoad]

Has anyone heard rumours about Qantas flying direct to Rio de Janeiro?
This might be handy with the 2014 World Cup around the corner.

Welcome to the forum.

Where are they getting the extra planes from? which service(s) would be discontinued?
The mileage alone is crazy, there would need to be stops, unless the ER jumbo's are used.

Special events sure, but a regular commerical service? dont think so.

 

[Isochronous]

Perhaps a tag flight at the end of SYD-SCL might be more likely.

How long does that bird spend on the ground in SCL? I know flights are not daily so it must be some amount of time. And we have a FTA with Chile - does that include 5th Freedom rights?

 

[docjames]

Turns around and comes straight back from SCL.

I'm thinking a one-off for the WC is likely. There are good connections in SCL so not worth it IMO.

 

[Isochronous]

Turns around and comes straight back from SCL.

I'm thinking a one-off for the WC is likely. There are good connections in SCL so not worth it IMO.

A tag during the WC could still work though. But hey, if QF think they can make this a new permanent route that works, I'll be the first to cheerlead it!

 

[eric2011]

How long does that bird spend on the ground in SCL? I know flights are not daily so it must be some amount of time.

Arrives around 11.00am (give or take) and departs around 2.00pm (give or take). My suggest, after a 14 hour flight, get off in Santiago, cross the road to the Holiday Inn, spend the night then take the 5 hour flight to Rio the next morning. Been there, done it, lived to tell the tale

 

[nlagalle]

They may do something as the Olympics are there in less than 3 years.. But then I don't recall them flying to Athens in 2004.

 

[Mattg]

QF27 is continuing from Santiago onto Rio de Janeiro today (and tomorrow). Just one of four additional flights for the World Cup though, so unfortunately not a regular thing.

 

[Mattg]

In terms of the feasibility of making the tag flight to Rio a permanent thing, I've done a little research and found that:

-they shouldn't have issues with finding aircraft, as the aircraft arriving into Sydney as QF28 generally overnights. QF64 and QF28 (on the days it operates) both arrive into Sydney in the afternoon/evening but only one 747 flight departs Sydney in the evening (QF21 to NRT), with one staying on the ground overnight, so it would not be drastic if QF28 arrived in Sydney the next morning. The current schedule with the tag flights has it landing in Sydney at ~6am the next morning, in time to take up the next flight.

-in terms of fifth freedom rights, Chile has a fairly liberal approach to this and it seems Qantas would be allowed to sell tickets on a SCL-GIG flight. In fact, it is currently possible to buy tickets between Santiago and Rio on the upcoming Qantas tag flights on 27 and 30 June - and a ticket on the 30th June flight can be bought for just US$60!

-but, is there enough demand? Your guess is as good as mine.

 

[dajop]

-but, is there enough demand? Your guess is as good as mine.

Unlike the LAX-JFK tag flights, there aren't two other flights (from MEL & BNE) to connect to the flight, and also unlike NYC, Rio is not the No 1. business destination in South America. Therefore it would seem unlikely that demand would be enough, given that a good chunk of SYD-SCL pax would probably terminate in SCL or connect to other South America destinations on LAN services.

 

[QPProletarian]

-in terms of fifth freedom rights, Chile has a fairly liberal approach to this and it seems Qantas would be allowed to sell tickets on a SCL-GIG flight. In fact, it is currently possible to buy tickets between Santiago and Rio on the upcoming Qantas tag flights on 27 and 30 June - and a ticket on the 30th June flight can be bought for just US$60!.

That's awesome.

 

[Mattg]

Unlike the LAX-JFK tag flights, there aren't two other flights (from MEL & BNE) to connect to the flight, and also unlike NYC, Rio is not the No 1. business destination in South America. Therefore it would seem unlikely that demand would be enough, given that a good chunk of SYD-SCL pax would probably terminate in SCL or connect to other South America destinations on LAN services.

All valid points, but unlike the LAX-JFK flight, Qantas would be able to sell seats to those just wanting to fly between SCL and Brazil (and vice versa) as well as they would have fifth freedom rights. (This would in my opinion be easily the best way to fly between Brazil and Argentina.) There is also the LAN/QF codeshare flight from SYD/AKL and other oneworld services which it could connect to.

What is the number one business destination in South America - São Paulo? I don't see why they couldn't fly there instead if they thought they would get more passengers?

I see quite a bit of merit to this, particularly with Brazil being an emerging market with a lot more people travelling, and they could market it as "the quickest way to Brazil/Australia", among other things. Rio and São Paulo are also hubs for TAM, which has recently joined oneworld.

Of course, I doubt this will ever happen again (with the exception of perhaps the 2016 Olympics) but I would love to see Qantas try something like this. Even as a once a week thing.

 

[dajop]

I see quite a bit of merit to this, particularly with Brazil being an emerging market with a lot more people travelling, and they could market it as "the quickest way to Brazil/Australia", among other things. Rio and São Paulo are also hubs for TAM, which has recently joined oneworld.

Good idea, but if you look at emerging markets closer to home (India, China), both markets with significant number of "diaspora" or migrant populations in Australia (many more than Brazilians), QF struggle with these. They couldn't get SYD-PEK working, nor MEL-PVG. Also look at BOM, which was a tag flight and they couldn't make flights there work, even with multiple city connections at SIN (to/from MEL, SYD, BNE, PER & ADL).