Originally Posted by
PlasticFantastic
I don't follow your reasoning. Why would Qantas go out and buy a less efficient and less profitable aircraft to fly one of its most profitable routes? It's one thing to use widebodies to fly tag flights that fill their schedule and help out at peak times; it's another to invest in dedicated planes that would be less profitable.
Surely the better answer would be to buy larger capacity planes that are built for shorthaul flying, like the 737-10, A321 or 797 - which seems to be Qantas' plan. Or, if there are a stack of other unserved routes to just buy more 737s?
(But, as has been said above, QF and VA's current profitability is largely the result of capacity restraint, so not sure that I'd want to dump a stack of extra planes into the shorthaul market just yet.)
By the time 737-10, A321, or 797 is in the fleet, how full will MEL-SYD be based an annual growth and no potential to schedule extra flights because they're already going every 10 minutes in peak? The sweet spot is 80% load factor because you need some wiggle-room for delayed passengers and seasonal variation (I hazard a guess Friday, being the busiest day of the week, would be operating low to mid 90 percentile).
Remember MEL-SYD is either the second or third busiest route in the world; we're not talking about your average sector here with only several flights per day - it needs bigger aircraft! Using your logic, ANA should sell up all those 777s and buy more 737s for HND-CTS.
More 737s isn't the answer anyway as pilots are coming up short, so in the meantime, why not redeploy the existing JQ 787s?