Should Qantas bring back Rome and Paris Flights? Should they do this themselves or keep it code shared? Should Virgin Australia do proper codeshare flights to Rome?
I don't see why Qantas should do Rome and Paris, especially not know when they are 'bleeding red ink' on international routes. But I am also a bit mystified about why people ask questions like this, I mean, what's the point of asking this?
Simply, no they should not. If you read everything that Qantas has been saying in the 10-20 years it is that the importance of multiple long haul, high cost routes into Europe has diminished. 20 years ago they may have serviced a plethora of European routes (inc. Amsterdam, Athens, Istanbul, Madrid, Belgrade (apparently..), and popular tourist destinations such as Cairo). However, the rise of asian and middle eastern airlines has given the mid point carriers a huge competative advantage. In essence Singapore, Cathay, Malaysian, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar....most of QFs competition....all have the advantage of taking passengers through their homeport, enabling them to offer more end point destinations and schedule options than QF who, under their current model have to fly a plane all they way from Australia to service and end point destination. This only worked in the regulated flying era when QFs market share and routes were heavily protected.
Add to this the fact that QF is now public and its competitors are state backed and have lower cost bases, and you can see why the QF European network has shrunk to just LHR & FRA.
As it currently stands it is far more cost effective for QF to code share with Air France from SIN - CDG, or if you prefer QF metal they will streamline you onto a BA service from LHR to your European destination. It may not be as simple as a direct QF flight to say Rome, but it is feasable.
As a point of comparison, compare Dubai and its local destinations to that of Sydney. From Sydney QF serve a reasnoble spread of Asian destinations that are less exposed to volatile fuel, close to the home base for logistical purposes and are important destinations for Australians. In a similar manner Dubai is within 4-5 hours of many European destinations, and like QFs SYD-Asia network it is ecconomically a lot easier to manage. So while Dubai can fly just a handful of planes to Australia (2/3 of the total distance from Asu - Europe) each day and clain to have ~27 European destinations. QF would have to fly 27 planes to Europe to manage the same schedule, and lets face it ther simply are not enough Aussie expats and QF fans in Singapore to add to the trafic from SIN - 27 Europe destinations.
Airport Addict it is a pretty pointless ask atm. Having said that there is room for future speculation. For QF the answer is the 787. The entire A380 order of 20 aircraft will be required to meet the current network and to fuel potential expansion in the US which is one of QFs strongest cards in its international deck. Between QF and JQ there are a few potential European destinations. You could speculate Paris and Rome, but Germany is one of the strongest ecconomies in the world, and houses the hub of new OW member Airberlin. Budapest is the capital of OW member Malev (although I see that as very low), the tourism draw of Istanbul and Cairo may see JQ planes. But as I say this is all speculation. At the moment QF will continue to do what they do best, A380 services to London!
Inane question. Because airlines are regional specialists as a general rule (except for airlines like Malev & Mexicana, which has gone belly up) its better to partner for these routes than actually fly, unless you'd be up for a Qantas Cessna.
Understood. Also, why arent Virgin Australia code sharing to Rome? Etihad flies to Rome. They use Virgin Australia for flights to get you to an international airport inside australia and they codeshare like this when you book through etihad... but then when you turn it around and book through Virgin Australia, you cant book a flight to Rome.
Not that it is related to the QF topic, however Etihad do not fly to Rome with their own metal. EY codeshare with AZ out of MXP with AZ. Hence why no VA codeshare to FCO.
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Should Qantas bring back Rome and Paris Flights?
AirportAddict
AirportAddict
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 05 Jan 2012
Total posts 175
Should Qantas bring back Rome and Paris Flights? Should they do this themselves or keep it code shared? Should Virgin Australia do proper codeshare flights to Rome?
AlG
AlG
Member since 04 Nov 2010
Total posts 155
I don't see why Qantas should do Rome and Paris, especially not know when they are 'bleeding red ink' on international routes. But I am also a bit mystified about why people ask questions like this, I mean, what's the point of asking this?
johnaboxall
johnaboxall
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 24 Aug 2011
Total posts 384
He asks many pointless or odd questions...
DrTGanguly
DrTGanguly
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 20 Nov 2011
Total posts 107
Simply, no they should not. If you read everything that Qantas has been saying in the 10-20 years it is that the importance of multiple long haul, high cost routes into Europe has diminished. 20 years ago they may have serviced a plethora of European routes (inc. Amsterdam, Athens, Istanbul, Madrid, Belgrade (apparently..), and popular tourist destinations such as Cairo). However, the rise of asian and middle eastern airlines has given the mid point carriers a huge competative advantage. In essence Singapore, Cathay, Malaysian, Emirates, Etihad, Qatar....most of QFs competition....all have the advantage of taking passengers through their homeport, enabling them to offer more end point destinations and schedule options than QF who, under their current model have to fly a plane all they way from Australia to service and end point destination. This only worked in the regulated flying era when QFs market share and routes were heavily protected.
Add to this the fact that QF is now public and its competitors are state backed and have lower cost bases, and you can see why the QF European network has shrunk to just LHR & FRA.
As it currently stands it is far more cost effective for QF to code share with Air France from SIN - CDG, or if you prefer QF metal they will streamline you onto a BA service from LHR to your European destination. It may not be as simple as a direct QF flight to say Rome, but it is feasable.
As a point of comparison, compare Dubai and its local destinations to that of Sydney. From Sydney QF serve a reasnoble spread of Asian destinations that are less exposed to volatile fuel, close to the home base for logistical purposes and are important destinations for Australians. In a similar manner Dubai is within 4-5 hours of many European destinations, and like QFs SYD-Asia network it is ecconomically a lot easier to manage. So while Dubai can fly just a handful of planes to Australia (2/3 of the total distance from Asu - Europe) each day and clain to have ~27 European destinations. QF would have to fly 27 planes to Europe to manage the same schedule, and lets face it ther simply are not enough Aussie expats and QF fans in Singapore to add to the trafic from SIN - 27 Europe destinations.
Airport Addict it is a pretty pointless ask atm. Having said that there is room for future speculation. For QF the answer is the 787. The entire A380 order of 20 aircraft will be required to meet the current network and to fuel potential expansion in the US which is one of QFs strongest cards in its international deck. Between QF and JQ there are a few potential European destinations. You could speculate Paris and Rome, but Germany is one of the strongest ecconomies in the world, and houses the hub of new OW member Airberlin. Budapest is the capital of OW member Malev (although I see that as very low), the tourism draw of Istanbul and Cairo may see JQ planes. But as I say this is all speculation. At the moment QF will continue to do what they do best, A380 services to London!
here2go
here2go
Qantas
Member since 10 Sep 2011
Total posts 45
Inane question. Because airlines are regional specialists as a general rule (except for airlines like Malev & Mexicana, which has gone belly up) its better to partner for these routes than actually fly, unless you'd be up for a Qantas Cessna.
AirportAddict
AirportAddict
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 05 Jan 2012
Total posts 175
Understood. Also, why arent Virgin Australia code sharing to Rome? Etihad flies to Rome. They use Virgin Australia for flights to get you to an international airport inside australia and they codeshare like this when you book through etihad... but then when you turn it around and book through Virgin Australia, you cant book a flight to Rome.
Noob
Noob
Virgin Australia - Velocity Frequent Flyer
Member since 28 May 2011
Total posts 4
Virgin codeshares to Milan which for me is much better - especially for business
DGP
DGP
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 17 Jan 2012
Total posts 42
Not that it is related to the QF topic, however Etihad do not fly to Rome with their own metal. EY codeshare with AZ out of MXP with AZ. Hence why no VA codeshare to FCO.