Goodbye to Dubai: Qantas shifts London stopovers to Singapore

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 17 total)

  • mkcol74
    Participant

    As mentioned here already @navnov11


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    Here’s the BT piece.

    With the extra capacity now appearing on the SIN-LHR route we can expect some good pricing.

    Remember that Norwegian will be entering this route next month with non-stop service ex-LGW.

    Qantas to switch Dubai services to Singapore


    SwissExPat
    Participant

    I remember flying Qantas from LHR to DXB (on a codeshare with Emirates) just to have the Aussie experience in J on A380 rather than EK.

    Generally the flight was fine but I was disappointed to see that all the Crew (incl captain) were not Aussie. The all seemed to be UK based (and kinda resembled a crew that were not as professional as a Legacy BA cred).

    Despite a significant wine ‘Book’ no one seemed to know what wines were being served that day. We were sitting in the middle 2 seats and my partner was served her food and wine out of Sync with me (from the trolley on the other aisle) So not a very professional service.

    Would not choose them again on 380 eastbound ex LHR.


    mikewebley
    Participant

    I will miss this service. I really liked the business class & PreEco seating on the Qantas 380


    FDOS_UK
    Participant

    [quote quote=824905]I will miss this service. I really liked the business class & PreEco seating on the Qantas 380

    [/quote]

    Me too. The Premium was excellent in particular.


    EU_Flyer
    Participant

    QF Premium Economy is indeed market leading, especially on food. QF PE was always a problem with Emirates though, who don’t have a Premium Y cabin. In circumstances where a QF passenger in Premium Econ needed to be accomodated on an EK aircraft (due to cancellation / missed connection etc), it would lead to a downgrade. Now, PE won’t be offered to QF customers except to London.

    Basically, Qantas has handed its entire continental Europe offering over to Emirates. It makes sense given the geography and economics. The shift back to Singapore will see the QF A380 back at Changi albeit at the cost of some current A330 services which have the new 1-2-1 Business config, a step up from the old Skybeds Mark II on the A380.

    Given the QF/BA JV is well dead, it will be interesting to see how BA responds as QF1/2 will now be competing with the BA15/16 for oneworld customers on that route. Some healthy competition?


    MarkivJ
    Participant

    I know it’s easy for me to say, but I think Qantas should kiss and make up with both British Airways and Cathy Pacific. That’s the only way to beat the MEB3.


    Flightlevel
    Participant

    200 miles less via SIN so if the transit is short slightly quicker.
    BA may not continue their A380 to SYD unless they can fill First on the sector to SYD, probably unlikely and yield would be lower, and can they compete with Asian carriers.
    QF has agency cabin crew to reduce costs. It may become popular with Mixed Fleet crews?


    mkcol74
    Participant

    @Flightlevel BA don’t send their A380 to Sydney, it’s their 773 which goes there. The A380 terminates in Singapore.


    Flightlevel
    Participant

    Thks mkcol74, was replying to an earlier post that suggest they may and consider they may not for reasons stated.
    I doubt even mixed fleet crews can compete with QF agency crews or Asian airlines.
    On reflection BA more likely to use their A350s on the route to replace the B777 and believe they still have an agreement with QF so can use QF A380 onward to SYD.


    paulkaz
    Participant

    Alex.F this comment in ausbt by FLX1 explains the joint QF EK commerecial justification to QF’s shift to SIN masquerading as acceding to customer demand.
    “No surprise re many folks here all believe this new QF move re Kangaroo route stopover relocation has to be all about ‘QF finally listening to pax(or more accurately, ausbt.com.au readers’) preference’ for QF to abandon the DXB/EK hell hole and re-embrace the SIN heaven.

    After 90 comments though, I’m surprised nobody mentioned the possibility that this move can be @ least partly due to a request to QF initiated by EK/Tim Clark which goes something like this in a network strategy meeting of this JV(Timing is right as this JV is almost due for regulatory approval to renew):
    1. Transfer all current QF flyings via DXB to EK so we can eliminate all of our current Kangaroo route/capacity duplication over DXB and improve load factor/network efficiency.
    2. We can expand our JV mkt footprint(e.g. frequency & connectivity) if QF Kangaroo ops return to SIN stopover to reinforce BOTH existing QF AND EK networks to/fm SIN…e.g. becomes possible for BNE/MEL-SIN by EK(In addition to the same by QF) to connect with SIN-LHR by QF.
    3. EK is running into a bit of problem lately re decreasing profitability and worst of all, over-capacity/reducing load factor elsewhere in our network(e.g. U.S.). We need to find more new work for our legions of giant 380 & 77W so pls help by letting us do all flying to/fm DXB in our JV.

    Of course as pointed out to me by editors here numerous time, ausbt.com.au is more about pax/traveller experience/aspirations. So the mainstream idea of QF making this move solely because of pax preference is a lot more romantic for readers here to buy than cold strategic biz/mkt calculations….”
    With in 18 -24 months QF will have non stop 787-9 to,CDG FCO and a german port. Cheery picking the prime destinations and leaving the rest to EK code share. The A380 J class will match the A330 1-2-1 cabin and first mildly updated.


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    I am a bit confused by the continuing need for the EK/QF alliance with this switch. As noted above, QF have effectively handed over their continental European routes to EK, and gain nothing from this in terms of pax-on-own-metal since they will no longer fly to DXB so they don’t even get fares for the first leg (granted, QF sell these as codeshares, so I suppose from a FFP perspective it is a marketing tool for them and presumably they get some marginal revenue). With EK flying to multiple Australian destinations I suspect there isn’t huge demand for connections to QF’s domestic services. I can’t imagine there is a lot of linkage between QF and EK in Singapore – so why continue the alliance? What does each airline get out of it now?


    paulkaz
    Participant

    IanFromHKG my guess for the continued partnership is mostly about QF frequent flyer. The aus domestic market is their engine room.Capturing and keeping all those members is vital. All those points earnt have to be spent. It s hard to burn them to North America. Much easier on all those QF EK code shares.
    It s better for QF to be in bed with the strongest of the ME3 than fighting the lot of them.
    Seems to be working QF posted their second highest profit after last years with pre tax A$1.4 billion while CX And SQ struggle. I thought Alan Joyce’s renewal plans would destroy QF.So far I was very wrong.


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    Yes, I must confess I too thought the EK partnership would be a whole bunch of nails in QF’s coffin, but it seems to have turned out very differently! However, they now seem to be charting a very different path to EK – bypassing Dubai completely for their own non-stop flights to Europe, abandoning the whole idea of taking pax to DXB to connect to EK services etc. Still, the domestic QF FFP base is presumably a huge attraction for EK and I suppose EK has to pay QF for the points it gives to pax. But it really seems more like a competitive alliance rather than a co-operation alliance, if you know what I mean!

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