When Qantas postponed two Airbus A380s to save capital expenditure in the rapidly growing market that its newly separated international division is supposed to address it also walked away from an upgraded version of the giant airliner that could have carried a viable payload non-stop between London and Perth. The 575 tonnes version of the [...]
It’s just a photo, but the inaugural Scoot service between Singapore and Sydney on 4 June has emerged at Changi Airport. The colour of the refurbished 400 seat plus Boeing 777-200ER is (subjectively) a lot less confronting than the original vomit comet hue in the artists impressions. But even if it was painted to look [...]
This editorial appeared on the Crikey subscriber bulletin earlier today There are some difficult questions left unanswered about the future of Qantas as an international Australian flag carrier in the restructure that splits the airline into two separately managed businesses for domestic and international services from July 1. The large majority of Australians who fly [...]
Rather like the Tropfest short film festival but for frequent flyers the ATSB has issued four brief, relevant, and occasionally disturbing safety incident reports today in its regular release of inquiries into what are generally seen as secondary occurances. One concerns a miscalculation of runway length by the crew of a Qantas 737-400 departing Melbourne [...]
Qantas is adding substantial capacity to key east coast routes in a move which follows the much used techniques in the US and Europe of dumping capacity into markets to eliminate competitors. The technique, which hastened the bankruptcy of most US legacy carriers that tried it, and saw Ryanair in Europe thrive during hostilities which [...]
In a review of Singapore Airlines year to 31 March results, which included an operational loss in the last quarter, its CEO Goh Choon Phong says the group will tap into premium single aisle carrier SilkAir to boost this year’s performance as well as work on the closer integration of its minority owned Tiger low [...]
While the story may seem a teaser, Emirates didn’t raise the prospect of a new commercial alliance with Qantas for fun. And it wouldn’t have caused much rejoicing at Virgin Australia, no pun intended. Just as Qantas is larger than Virgin Australia, Emirates is larger, way larger, than Etihad. And with Virgin Australia in a [...]
The strategic potential for the Qantas restructure to precede the unlocking of assets by the board and sale of part or parts of the group appears to be very real in this analysis from an inside source in Qantas. At the very least, it means a big increase in management costs, and an inevitable expansion [...]
The Qantas restructure will not erase the record when it comes to the failings of Alan Joyce as CEO of the group since November 2008, but can changes that have removed two ambitious rivals in Jetstar group CEO Bruce Buchanan or Qantas head of commercial and freight Rob Gurney save him, or save investors stuck [...]
Updated A Jetstar spokesman insists his airline will put the Dreamliner in service before Qantas, and says it doesn’t need to do any work in preparation for the 787 a year before it is due in service. Does this mean there will be arm wrestling between Qantas and Jetstar? Is this a reprieve for Virgin [...]
