Etihad’s new Brisbane flights seem as much about Singapore as Abu Dhabi and beyond
Etihad’s much anticipated increase in its Brisbane flights to daily from 1 February on the Abu Dhabi run raise a few issues.
One is that the two class A330-200s used on the route will of necessity stop somewhere along the way, and they will continue to do so in Singapore, the home base of Singapore Airlines which is, like Etihad, an alliance partner of Virgin Australia.
This has another consequence, in that if you are using the Etihad service to connect in Abu Dhabi to cities in Europe, you will take hours longer because of the extra stop in Singapore than would have been the case by connecting to the same European cities on Singapore Airlines for a non-stop flight from Singapore.
Alliances are often like this. Untidy. Even when all of the options are on high quality carriers.
On the other hand while the Singapore stop en route to Abu Dhabi could disappear if Etihad deployed airliners like the A340-600 and 777-300ER on the Brisbane route, there are clear commercial attractions in such a stopover, as shown by its larger UAE compatriot Emirates in its use of both Singapore and Bangkok as stops on the way to Dubai on some of its flights using jets that could do the route non-stop.
If Virgin Australia had a 777-300ER to spare for Brisbane-Abu Dhabi it could offer the one-stop to Europe option using a final stage on an Etihad flight.
However this is where the chicken or egg effect comes into play. Until traffic on the Brisbane-Europe market grows, it is unlikely to see airlines investing the type of jets needed to do it one stop.
It’s a situation that Qantas should be able to exploit to its advantage, except that all the signals from Qantas are about reducing its reach.
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Qantas Int is in full forfeit mode, as managements’ industrial focus trumps any functional emphasis on growth. In fact despite the Olympic inspired hoopla, Australia is very fast becoming a Nation without an international flag carrying airline.
Domestically, joyce & co after 5 years, are now listening to their customers & are returning to the Gold Coast ? Not likely, more likely is Emirates disdain for jetstar, forcing Qantas’s hand. Expect more qantas ” listening” & returns to the Sunshine Coast, Tasmania etc as a prerequisite to any agreement from Emirates.
Qantas Int’s retreat will continue, as incompetent fleet management means routes that operate at near 100% capacity, still cannot match the efficiencies of 777-300ERs’ e.g. Singapore – Germany & Brisbane -USA. I believe Qantas 747s burn 40 ton more fuel on a Brisbane – LA than Borgetti’s 777s, carrying exactly the same load. I don’t know what sort of yield magician can make up for that, especially since Borgetti cheery picked the best of the Qantas yield management team & took them across.
joyce & clifford will continue to shrink Qantas Int & effectively forfeit routes ex South Australia & even Western Australia. Perth is more & more being serviced by 777 operators, with even Air New Zealand recently upgrading it’s service to 777. Singapore, Malaysian, Emirates & soon Qatar all are increasing their flights to the booming resource rich State, with a full service premium standard product. Bear in mind not a single Qantas airbus 330 has a fully lie flat business class seat, so in fact Qantas’ loyal WA customers were being offered an inferior product already. Are Qantas management setting up Perth to be abondoned & left to being serviced by jetstar asia ?
Is it only the few who were taken aback by Qantas’s recent ” you’re the reason we fly ” campaign ? Given it’s less than year ago that joyce stranded 90,000 customers world wide, at NO notice … I found the ad made me want to puke.
So true Banjo – perhaps it should have been “you’re the reason we fly…. sometimes when were not busy spitting the dummy and grounding the fleet because we don’t know how to negotiate”
Well, although we mention Etihad in the same breath as Emirates, we should remember that EY has been going for a much shorter time, and their fleet is much smaller so they just do not have planes that they can devote to Australian route in large numbers. When one of their brand new A340-600s was written off in a taxi accident at Toulouse that was a big problem for several months.
Virgin also has a shortage of planes, but that is self inflicted. They cancelled several 777s that were on order. Perhaps for Brisbane to Abu Dhabi, 787-9s would fit the bill?
Where and how do you some of you guys come up with such fanciful conclusions?
Banjo for you to suggest that Qantas’ return to the Gold Coast (and potentially Sunshine Coast and Tassie, which I will believe when I see it, other than perhaps a peak season/time service to Hobart) is due to some sort of influence that Emirates is exercising because of a potential EK-QF codeshare relationship, is beyond belief. Have you been standing too close to the petrol bowser when filling your car?
Methinks you protest TOO MUCH Mr Postman …
Methinks you should gain a more balanced perspective on aviation Mr Banjo
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