Frequent travellers to the USA will be interested to hear what American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey has to say about his airline's plans to fly to Australia, remarkably critical thoughts about Qantas, and plans to replace the upgraded aircraft currently flying from Los Angeles LAX to New York's JFK.
Arpey, speaking to
Executive Road Warrior, let slip several important pieces of information for Australian business travellers.
American thinking about flights to Australia
It's fairly clear to industry observers that Boeing has given American some cheap deals on 777s to make up for the delays to the
787 Dreamliner program.
Gerard Arpey, American Airlines CEO, is hedging his bets in doing business with Qantas.
Arpey dropped some serious hints that American has aspirations for the very lucrative trans-Pacific route in the interview, saying: "we did just apply for the Joint Business Agreement with Qantas and they started flying into and out of DFW, which is great for both of us. We may want to put our ducks in Australia with the Qantas guys, but [the 777-300ER] certainly could do that route."
(Australian Business Traveller first reported that
American's new 777-300ER aircraft had the capacity for Los Angeles-Sydney flights in January.)
When talking about delivery dates for the 777-300ER, Arpey was very clear about the timeline: "All 8 are set for 2012 and 2013."
And there could be more to come: "We still have seven 777-200 deliveries for 2013 through 2016 that are on the books. Now, whether those might be changed to 300s, I don’t know," Arpey hedged.
American could even be planning a Qantas-busting new first class product on flights to Australia. When asked about whether the existing American Flagship Suite first class seat will be put on the 777-300ER, Arpey said: "We haven’t decided for sure how we’re going to configure that [aircraft]."
Since that Qantas has eschewed the 777-300ER and is using its 747-400ER planes --
which have diverted twice to refuel just this week -- instead, is American losing patience with Qantas' trans-Pacific problems?
Qantas: not on American's radar?
To make matters worse for Qantas, American doesn't see the Red Roo as a key part of "the best network for premium traffic", despite
applying for a trans-Pacific joint venture with Qantas. Arpey specifically mentioned British Airways, Iberia, Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific as part of that premium traffic network, but there was no sign of Qantas in his thinking.
Qantas has been hoping that
extra connections through American's mega-hub in Dallas would be a better deal than flights to San Francisco.
The airlines' membership of the oneworld alliance doesn't necessarily signify a meeting of minds between the two airlines either. Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific and Qantas have famously not seen eye to eye in recent memory, with Qantas' decision to skip Cathay's Hong Kong base (the natural oneworld stopover location for Kangaroo Route flights to Europe) in favour of the existing Qantas-British Airways joint venture via Singapore.
Given that Qantas is currently sending its longest-range Boeing 747s on a route they don't really have the range for (given that they had to divert for fuel twice this week alone, has Qantas picked the wrong dance partner for the Airline Tango?
Is Jetstar making matters worse?
Sitting in US headquarters, Gerard Arpey has to be wondering what Qantas' CEO Alan Joyce is up to with Jetstar. From the perspective of the US airline industry, low-cost carriers affiliated with legacy airlines just don't work.
Delta Air Lines attempted a low-cost move with Song, moving 48 of its Boeing 757 planes into a subsidiary with a low-cost model to try to compete with new airlines like JetBlue. Song only lasted three years, from 2003 to 2006.
Similarly, United Airlines tried a low-cost subsidiary called Ted between 2004 and 2009. It failed, and its nearly 60 Airbus planes were folded back into the United fleet.
What lesson has the US airline industry learned from that? Low-cost subsidiaries don't work. Are Arpey and American Airlines management looking aghast at
Qantas' plans to turn Jetstar into "Qantas Lite"?
New aircraft: what does it mean for Australian connections?
Australians will be affected by the aircraft purchase as older planes are replaced with newer ones. The first set to go are clearly the old McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 fleet, which are ancient in aircraft terms.
But Arpey also mentions retiring the Boeing 767-200 domestic fleet. Those are the planes that American flies between New York JFK and Los Angeles or San Francisco with better seats and service as part of its "Flagship" transcontinental service.
American clearly hasn't made its mind up on the planes that will replace the 767-200s.
"We’re not saying that we’re going to fly a bunch of 737s or Airbus A321s on the transcons. We’re just saying it opens some new possibilities for those aircraft," Arpey says, cagily, especially when probed on whether American's much-delayed Boeing 787 fleet will be deployed on those flights.
The big picture
All these points beg the question: where is the Qantas/American Airlines venture going? We're always interested to hear your thoughts on the matter. Share your views with other readers in the comment box below, or join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #qfaa -- and don't forget to @mention us in your Tweets:
@AusBT.