I did mention here prior to this route beginning, that for various reasons I thought it might primarily be supported out of Perth, with traffic from other Cities merely providing a bit of extra revenue. Regardless of where the pax originate, Anyone with access to Staff Travel can see that getting a seat on it is a tough ask, it does look very successful so far.
Sure, it’s still early, and the below figures are from the very early weeks of the service, but they are the official figures. By all means check my arithmetic, but it’s certainly positive;
https://bitre.gov.au/publications/on...ivity_1805.pdf
MEL-PER-LHR:
Seats: 14632
pax : 13397
Thats a load factor in the 90s, a point at which on many other routes Airlines will experience ‘Spill’ to other Airlines(something to be avoided if possible), and then typically look at putting on additional services.
For the international portion of the QF 9, 25% of the Pax seem to be originating from Melbourne,
While much of the rest of the Load (as confirmed by the above-posted article), is originating from Perth.
Certainly, we are yet to see a Northern Winter and it’s possible effects on this route, both for loads and possible diversions or what-not, but at the moment you’d have to have bit of positivity about it. Surely even some initial doubters are coming around.
Like many, I’m not happy about the overall reduction in capacity to Europe over the last few years. However, with more of these aircraft on the way, we could see some more direct routes into Europe thanks to this one ending up a success, growing the footprint once again.
For a long time, there hasn’t been much to like about QF management, but credit where it’s due, this looks like being something positive.