Singapore looks more likely as Qantas base for its planned Asia premium narrow body venture
August 18, 2011 – 5:10 pm, by
Ben Sandilands
An application this afternoon by Qantas to Australia’s International Air Services Commission to apply its QF code to no less than the equivalent of 14 Boeing 747s weekly on Jetstar Asia services between Singapore and Thailand makes it likely that Singapore will become the base for its planned Asia based and as yet unnamed premium narrow body carrier.
It is the sort of thing an airline would logically do at any base where it was planning to expand an existing presence. The application can be seen as Qantas ensuring that it has lined up as much by way of transferable code authorisations as it can before it makes an announcement.
The code authorisations sought by Qantas would cover the four return flights a day that Singapore based Jetstar Asia currently flies to Bangkok and Penang in 180 seat A320s.
If Singapore becomes the base for the premium venture based on the same jet, but no doubt configured with much fewer seats, it would be implausible for the IASC to decline to transfer some of those code share designations from Jetstar Asia to the new carrier.
According to Singapore sources all of Jetstar Asia’s flights throughout the region will soon have a QF flight number applied to them, making the network visible and readily bookable on Qantas.com and one of the announced purposes of this new carrier is to provide new business for Qantas by connecting to its Asia gateways, which include Singapore and Bangkok.
Whether or not there is another explanation for the move, the application underscores the size of the Qantas group investment in Changi airport, where it already bases Australian registered Jetstar A330-200s as well as the Singapore flag carrier Jetstar Asia which uses A320s.