Not yet announced in Australia, the Delta Air Lines website says it will start daily non-stops between Sydney and Los Angeles on 1 July with Boeing 777-200LRs.
Presumably all the government approvals are in place. Under the US-Australia air traffic treaty, any American carrier can fly here on request. Delta, which recently merged with another major US carrier Northwest, is offering American customers a $US 499 return fare for use in the first two months of service.
It also refers to enhanced connectivity with Alaskan Airlines, which at least until recently, was an important source of traffic feeds for Qantas.
The Delta move on Sydney means a big rock has been dropped in the Pacific pond, and just where the competitive tsunami goes will become more apparent in the near future.
It is unlikely this development comes as a surprise to either Qantas or Virgin Blue. It may well have helped take the management focus in Qantas off a patently unworkable merger with British Airways and onto a more urgent competitive challenge.
3 Comments
So if they offer the same price to us at this end we’re talking ~$720 return flights to LA?
Thankfully I don’t own any Qantas shares anymore!
And a Crikey Wankley surely to the aviation reporter in “The Age” who so authoritatively declared that the B777-200LR would mean that Melbourne – LA was out of the question.
Jeez, where do the Australian media constantly dredge up these reporters from, who clearly wouldnt know an aeroplane if one landed on the freeway in front of them?
10 seconds with Google and you should know that the B77L is the worlds longest range airliner. 2 seconds more logical analysis shows that if some planes can already do the trip then the worlds longest range airliner shouldn’t be troubled. The range charts on Boeings sites show that even a plain old 200ER can do LA-Melbourne and the LR could go LA-Perth (or Chicago – Melbourne) For crying out loud Scott Rochfort do your research, and stop pretending to be an aviation reporter.
Jackson Harding
The 777-200LR will allow Delta to make very good money on air freight too, as it will have no payload restrictions between the eastern capitals and Los Angeles. The potential attractions of V Australia and Delta jointly selling -200LR and -300ER flights on various combinations of Australian cities are considerable. But for the time being at least, such an arrangement is pure speculation.