SYD-SFO Virgin Australia and SYD-AKL-SFO on JetStar!?

[willzzz88]

So apparently the rumour on THIS side of the Pacific is that while the SYD-SFO 4x weekly flights by QF were profitable, QF switched to DFW as we all know into AA's mega-hub for obvious reasons of connections, etc and faster connections to the US East Coast & Latin/South America if the LAN South Pacific flights were sold out (AA flies DFW-GRU/GIG/SCL non-stop).

Apparently QF thinks Australian-American business traffic in the oil/energy resources industry (several of the world's largest oil/energy firms are HQ'ed in IAH, 53 minute flight from DFW and some are in DFW and telecom's (AT&T HQ is in DFW) BEATS the F/C/ traffic they were getting between the tech hubs of San Francisco & Sydney.


So apparently the latest rumour I'm hearing is QF/JQ will be BACK in SFO for the high-tech F/C traffic with a Jetstar A332 HGW (latest Airbus version, more range, 12,500km full payload) via AKL and/or SYD if the winds cooperate.

Anyways with the F/C traffic out of the Bay Area and Silicone Valley I bet QF/J*/OneWorld wants that traffic back from ANZ/United (non-stop)/*A.

AND IAH is a *A hub.

The battle for business traffic of Oneworld & Star Alliance continues in this South Pacific war. ;-)

Now we also have the Richard Branson rumour of VA adding SYD-SFO.

 

[willzzz88]

The other reason United/Continental want to fly with their shiny new 787's IAH (Oil executives posh pockets) - Auckland (great stop-over & connecting point onto ANZ) is to satisfy Fortune 500 Oil/Energy business from Houston to Western Australia because was it ExxonMobile & Royal Dutch Shell were going to invest over $500-$1billion USD into Western Australia/the sea off-shore of Australia's coast for oil/gas exploration to feed the GROWING markets of East Asia desperate for oil & gas.

UA/CO for oil executives: IAH-AKL-PER-MIDDLE-OF-****ING-NOWHERE-NORTHERN-AUS-SEARCH-FOR-LOOTY-AKA-OIL!

:mrgreen:

 

[docjames]

Not sure if F/J flyers from the "tech" sectors ex-SFO will be happy with JQ "business". Methinks they're more likely to stay on UA/NZ. Especially if they can go nonstop on UA into SYD rather than transit AKL......

I'd say it's more aimed at ex-Aus and ex-NZ leisure travellers.

 

[Limewood]

If so hope its a better seat than the former JQ "Star Class".

 

[willzzz88]

Yep and the other rumours are that while QF on it's IAH-DME-SIN flight loads are only 50-60% incoming and going SQ makes the flight profitable daily now BECAUSE OF THE OIL EXECUTIVE TRAFFIC BECAUSE HOUSTON, MOSCOW and SINGAPORE!

THE Y is the problem they can't fill (interesting problem isn't it, it's usually the opposite) which is trash-Yield VFR from Houston going to Philippines/Vietnam.

SQ is hoping to replace the trash-Yield Y fill on IAH-DME-SIN by a code-share with Transaero (I read somewhere else) on more O&D IAH-DME and DME-SIN.

People were wondering WHY Singapore Airlines was flying a big-cough 77W to IAH (Houston). Well apparently it's oil/gas traffic between the OIL hubs of Houston, Singapore & Moscow.

The Y cheap-yield VFR to other places in SE-Asia (who would fly 20+ hours on this!?) to Vietnam/Philippines is just gravy.

 

[drewbles]

Having been a regular visitor on the old QF73/74 SYD-SFO, I can tell you, there was minimal First or Business travel.

It was 100% of the time, in the last few years, doing a cabin re-definition to put 2-3 rows of Y+ into the Y bucket, and 2 rows of J into the Y+ bucket (as well as all of Zone A into the J bucket).

There was not one flight I took that I was placed into a Y seat, or not upgraded to Y+ in a Skybed.

Premium traffic on this segment was extremely low. This is why I took it (and my hate of LAX TBIT; it's a damn zoo!). SFO is a far nicer place to transit, and a nicer city than LA to visit anyway.

SFO being a short flight from LAX, and a lot of people flying out of MEL, MEL/SYD-LAX connecting on to SFO is no big deal.

It sucks that it's gone, but my 2c worth is it'll come back with a 787 on JQ, as a primarily leisure route (although QF supposedly made good money from freight out of SFO and had a decent operation based out of there, which presumably moved to LAX).

That said, if VA take up the route, i'm so there (Decent VX connections out of SFO to LAS and BOS, the two places I go to most; and only good reports about VX around the place).

 

[psi999]

I’m surprised JQ aren’t utilising the existing SYD-HNL route and cashing in already on existing craft.

My 2c but I have always thought increasing capacity on the SYD-HNL route (on existing 330's) and possibly adding 330 service from AKL-HNL (with BNE/OOL-MEL feeder 320 service) then 330 service to LAX/SFO would make a lot of sense.

Few stops if you’re coming from BNE or MEL but if the price is right…..

 

[coyote25]

If they add SYD-SFO isn't it time jetstar joined OWE? Correct me if I'm wrong but they can't be used on OWE products.

While the rapid replacement of QF mainline seems to be behind us with the expansion to other Europe ports planned maybe this needs to be reconsidered?

 

[DeKa]

I've done SYD-SFO a number of times on QF73-74 too, and noticed similar to drewbles, that the F/J cabins weren't well utilised, at least by paying customers. Tech companies are notorious for Economy-only policies after all. If senior execs can fly Business Class, they often have a "at your discretion" policy which suggests that if flying business will have an impact on their business' margin, or be seen negatively by others, they should fly Economy too.

I will miss the direct flight, but will happily switch to Virgin Australia if they pick it up.