Australia Archives – Page 2 of 2

Qantas to open a new lounge in London Heathrow Terminal 3 in 2017

London Air Travel » Australia » Page 2

Qantas Airways has just announced it is to open a new dedicated lounge for first and business class passengers flying on its daily services to Sydney and Melbourne from London Heathrow Terminal 3, which will open in 2017.

Currently, Qantas does not have its own lounge at London Heathrow and eligible passengers have to make use of the British Airways Galleries Club and First lounges at London Heathrow Terminal 3.

The lounge will occupy two levels of the airport terminal with capacity for 230 passengers. The new lounge is expected to be modelled on recent Qantas lounges in Hong Kong and Singapore. Construction will commence later this year.

Features of the new lounge will include:

• Australian chef Neil Perry’s Rockpool menu and dining experience;
• Full-service bar with Rockpool cocktails;
• Full bathroom facilities including showers;
• Business facilities; and
• Children’s zone.

Eligible members of Oneworld alliance frequent flyer programmes will also have access to the lounge and with Cathay Pacific also refurbishing its lounges at London Heathrow Terminal 3, Oneworld passengers will have a good choice of lounge facilities at London Heathrow.

This is also a welcome investment by Qantas in London. Qantas has previously reduced its daily services from London Heathrow from four to two daily. It also ended its partnership with British Airways in favour a partnership with Emirates with all services to Sydney and Melbourne routed via Dubai as a consequence. There have been question marks over its long term commitment to London which can be allayed by the news of this investment.

Whilst the lounge design and menus will have a strong Australian flavour, Qantas do promise a British twist. In any event, a touch of Australia will no doubt be welcome in a wet and grey day at London Heathrow!
Continue reading “Qantas to open a new lounge in London Heathrow Terminal 3 in 2017”

Singapore Airlines introduces one stop link between London and Canberra

London Air Travel » Australia » Page 2

Singapore Airlines is to introduce a one stop link between London Heathrow and Canberra, Australia with the launch of the first international airline service to Canberra from its hub in Singapore from Tuesday 20 September 2016.

Singapore Airlines will fly from Singapore to Canberra four times weekly.

The flight will then continue from Canberra to Wellington, New Zealand.

The flight will be operated with a 266 seat Boeing 777-200 aircraft in a two class, business class (38 seats) and economy class (228 seats) configuration.

First class and premium economy class will not be available.

Whilst it is true to say that Australia’s capital Canberra does not top the list of the most popular tourist destinations in Australia and has long been overshadowed by its sexier/smarter rivals Sydney and Melbourne, the route will no doubt attract a lot of Government traffic.

Flights will be on sale at Singapore Airlines.

Singapore – Canberra – Wellington

Flight SQ291 Depart Singapore 23:00 – Arrive Canberra 08:35 (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday)

Flight SQ291 Depart Canberra 09:50 – Arrive Wellington 15:05 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday)

Wellington – Canberra – Singapore

Flight SQ292 Depart Wellington 20:15 – Arrive Canberra 22:05 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday)

Flight SQ292 Depart Canberra 23:30 – Arrive Singapore 05:50 (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday)

Flight times are subject to change when Daylight Saving Time is adopted.

Qatar Airways opens up London-Doha-Adelaide from 2 May 2016

London Air Travel » Australia » Page 2

Qatar Airways Logo (Credit: Qatar Airways)

Just a couple of weeks after Qatar Airways announced that it is to fly from Doha to Sydney the airline continues its expansion in the Australia market, the with the launch of a daily flight from Doha to Adelaide from Monday 2 May 2016.

This is Qatar Airways’ fourth destination in Australia after (as mentioned above) Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

Qatar will fly to Adelaide using its latest Airbus A350 aircraft, operating in a two class (business and economy) configuration.

The aircraft comprises 36 seats in business class in a 1-2-1 configuration, featuring 80″ fully-flat beds and 17″ HD in-flight entertainment screens, and 247 seats in economy, each 18-inches wide in a 3-3-3 configuration, with up to a 32″ pitch. Each individual economy seat features a 10.6″ in-flight entertainment screen. Wi-Fi is also available in all classes.

Flight QR 914 Depart Doha 20:55 – Arrive Adelaide 16:20
Flight QR 915 Depart Adelaide 21:30 – Arrive Doha 04:50

As Qatar Airways is a member of the Oneworld alliance, members of other Oneworld alliance frequent flyer programmes will be able to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles on this route.

Qantas Re-times London – Dubai – Melbourne

Qantas has retimed its London Heathrow – Dubai – Melbourne service in order to reduce downtime of its Airbus A380 fleet at London Heathrow.

London Air Travel » Australia » Page 2

Qantas Airbus A380 at London Heathrow Terminal 3 (Image Credit: Heathrow)

A familiar sight for anyone passing through Heathrow during the day is a pair of Qantas A380s parked at a remote stand near Terminal 3.

Whilst providing those on a mundane business trip to Frankfurt or Geneva the opportunity to dream about going somewhere else, it serves as an illustration of the hard economics for Qantas of competing against Middle Eastern and Asian airlines in the London to Australia market.

Currently, Qantas’ twice daily flights to Australia depart late in the evening and arrive in the morning at London Heathrow meaning hugely expensive assets are left on the ground all day doing nothing.

From 20 July 2014, as part of a broader restructuring of Qantas’ network in response to a deteriorating financial performance, Qantas flights to Melbourne will be retimed from a late evening departure to an early afternoon departure.

Qantas to maintain twice-daily London services; Melbourne retimed

London Air Travel » Australia » Page 2

Qantas has just published its half year results. In the past week there has been a frenzy of speculation in the Australian media following prior warnings from Qantas that it would incur heavy losses resulting in a significant restructuring of the airline and possibly drastic changes to its route network.

The losses themselves are as feared with Qantas reporting a loss before tax of AUD$252 million. Qantas has announced significant job cuts and disposals of aircraft and deferrals of aircraft deliveries.

There has been much speculation about the future of Qantas daily Airbus A380 services from London Heathrow to Sydney and Melbourne, following anecdotal reports of weak demand on the London Heathrow – Dubai sectors of the London – Melbourne routes.

Qantas has today confirmed that the two daily London Heathrow services will remain. However, the London – Melbourne route (currently a late night departure from London and early morning arrival, resulting in significant downtime of nearly 17 hours for the aircraft) will be retimed from November 2014.

We do not yet know what the new times are. One possible option is to retime the departure to late morning, as Qantas used to have to Sydney and Melbourne when it had four daily services from London Heathrow.

Virgin Atlantic suspends London – Sydney from 5 May 2014

London Air Travel » Australia » Page 2

Virgin Atlantic aircraft at London Heathrow

Virgin Atlantic has today announced that it is to suspend its daily London Heathrow-Sydney service from 5 May 2014. The airline will continue to fly to Hong Kong, where the Sydney flight currently stops en-route.

Continue reading “Virgin Atlantic suspends London – Sydney from 5 May 2014”

BA claims substantial improvement on London-Singapore-Sydney route

London Air Travel » Australia » Page 2

British Airways Logo (Image Credit: British Airways)

International Airlines Group held its annual Capital Markets Day on Friday 15 November 2013. This is an event where a very large volume of financial and strategic material is presented to institutional investors and analysts. However, there are small items of news (more to follow) of interest to the public at large.

One concerns the London-Singapore-Sydney route. Ever since Qantas jettisoned its partnership with BA in favour of a joint-venture with Emirates there has been speculation as to whether BA would be able to continue to serve Australia directly.

Continue reading “BA claims substantial improvement on London-Singapore-Sydney route”

BA upbeat on Sydney; Qantas to show impact of Emirates partnership

London Air Travel » Australia » Page 2

Emirates & Qantas Partnership (Image Credit: Emirates)

Qantas published its annual results for the year ended 30 June 2013 last week. The airline posted a modest net profit of AUD$6 million after tax, which was a significant improvement over last year’s loss of AUD$206 million.

This was primarily due a reduction in losses at Qantas’ International division, which prompted a significant reduction in capacity to Europe and the jettisoning of Qantas’ partnership with BA in favour of Emirates, by almost half to AUD$246 million.

Whilst the partnership between Emirates and Qantas is still very much in its infancy, it is curious that Qantas seems to have declined to give any clear revenue guidance on the partnership. In its results it gave only vague operational measures such as “2 times increase in codeshare bookings on EK network” and “3 times increase in EK bookings on Qantas Domestic network” compared to the partnership with British Airways and others. It is hard to draw any conclusions from such claims without seeing the detail behind the headlines.

Meanwhile, British Airways has remained upbeat on the performance of its last remaining Australian route, London-Singapore-Sydney.

IAG 1st Quarter Results – Analysts Q&A Session

London Air Travel » Australia » Page 2

British Airways / Iberia Logos (Image Credit: British Airways / Iberia)

As previously mentioned, International Airlines Group published its 1st quarter results in Friday.

On the morning of the announcement, as per standard protocol, it held a webcast for analyst and the question and answer session that follows provides a lot of useful insight into current strategic developments at the airline group.

Here is a summary of some points of interest from the call:

Continue reading “IAG 1st Quarter Results – Analysts Q&A Session”