Virgin Blue May Start Tokyo-Sydney Flights Within 18 Months
By Chris Cooper
Bloomberg.com
June 2 (Bloomberg) -- Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd., Australia’s second-biggest airline, may start flights between Sydney and Tokyo within 18 months in anticipation of a rebound in international travel demand.
The carrier would use Tokyo’s Haneda airport, Richard Branson, the billionaire who owns about 25 percent of the carrier, said in an interview today in Tokyo. The new route would be dependent on government approval.
Haneda will open a fourth runway next year and plans to allow 60,000 overseas flights a year, including late-night and early-morning landings. The airport, Asia’s busiest, is closer to central Tokyo and handles mainly domestic flights now, while the airport at Narita is the nation’s largest international gateway.
“We’re thinking seriously about it,” Branson said at a press conference. “The late flights into Haneda would work well.”
Business travel, which traditionally accounts for about 40 percent of sales at international carriers in the Asia-Pacific region, has fallen as businesses slash costs to cope with the global recession.
The slide in global passenger traffic slowed for the first time in seven months in April falling 3.1 percent from a year earlier, compared with an 11 percent drop in March, according to the International Air Transport Association.
“This year will likely be the worst year in the history of aviation,” Branson told reporters today after announcing his Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. will start code-sharing with All Nippon Airways Co. on Tokyo-London services in August. “Virgin Atlantic is prepared for what is going to be a very difficult year for all airlines.”