The publication of Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics's figures last week showed the Sydney-to-Los Angeles route had the lowest rate of passenger growth of the 10 busiest air routes into Australia in 2004. Passenger traffic on the route grew 1.6 per cent for the year compared with an average of 17.8 per cent for the other routes.
Once again, the media (and SQ) are using only the figures that suit their argument. The figures are from 2004 but are probably not all that different now.
Of course the SYD-LAX route is growing slowly, simply because QF is using the capacity to the US out of BNE and MEL. Off the top of my head, BNE-LAX direct is now 5 times weekly soon, and MEL-LAX is daily (and double daily at certain times of the year). The daily AKL-LAX flights now originate in MEL instead of BNE, offering an additional one-stop service from MEL that didn't exist 12 months ago.
In the past a lot of the BNE and MEL traffic would have to transit SYD, now they are flying direct. Of course the growth in SYD-LAX is only 1.6%.
As a QF employee and a proud Australian, I would much prefer seeing DJ have a shot at the Aus-LA route, using 777s/A340s etc. More jobs for my mates, and more jobs for Australians. What's wrong with that?
TL