There is so much corporate spin behind these announcements. It's a shame the journalists don't scrutinise the history a bit more rather than just re-wording the company produced press releases. Perhaps if they had, the actual story might have read something like this:
Today Qantas announced further changes to its services operating in and out of Hobart to take effect from mid 2014.
The port has seen numerous changes in service type and equipment, particularly over the last 15 years, with the national carrier seemingly unable to settle on a consistent service type or product offering for the state. This has given rise to growing frustration from locals and tourists alike and calls from government and business for Qantas to offer increased accessibility.
The changes announced today by Qantas add to the many from the last decade or more. In the mid-1990s, Hobart was serviced by up to six daily services to the mainland using Boeing 767 and 737 jets. Later, these were complemented with the Qantas regional subsidiary Southern, who had a crew base in Launceston, with BAe 146 jets.
Major changes took place to services to Hobart in the early 2000s following Qantas' acquisition of Impulse Airlines and the launch in 2004 of low cost carrier Jetstar. This saw Qantas mainline exit the Hobart market completely and business groups in particular were upset with this decision. It came as a surprise given the then monopoly Qantas had on all Business Class and other high yield traffic that Qantas had at the time in Hobart.
Having established a Jetstar crew base in Hobart, Qantas announced only a short time after that base would be closed and that the aircraft would no longer overnight in Hobart. This led to the loss of several company jobs in Hobart and forced some employees to relocate their families as far away as Darwin.
With rival Virgin Australia's growing emphasis on the business market in recent years, Qantas decided to reintroduce mainline services to the capital city using Boeing 737 jets. Many loyal customers were confused, however, with the company's decision not to offer the same product as other City Flyer services despite the fact Hobart is a capital city.
Last year, Qantas announced further changes to its schedule and equipment. The mainline 737 would no longer overnight at Hobart and would instead be replaced by a Qantaslink Dash 8 turboprop aircraft with a capacity of only 74 seats. This came as a surprise to many customers who knew that, in a strong northerly headwind, the service to Melbourne would take around 2 hours' flight time. Many punters voted with their feet and switched their allegiance to Virgin.
Today's announcement sees the reintroduction of 717 jets to Hobart and the withdrawal, yet again, of Qantas mainline 737 jets. The 717 is the same type of aircraft previously operated by the Qantas owned Impulse Airlines and briefly by Jetstar. The difference, however, is that the operation of these services will be outsourced by Qantas to Cobham Aviation. Although painted in Qantas livery, and operated by staff wearing Qantas uniforms, the aircraft are not owned, operated or maintained by Qantas employees.
Cobham and Qantas have not yet provided any details of how many services will operate into Hobart. Government and business are concerned that the much smaller 717 aircraft may reduce the capacity being offered in to the sensitive market which is heavily reliant on tourism and freight capacity for its export businesses such as fresh seafood.
The lack of consistency of services by Qantas to Hobart and frequent capacity, product and schedule changes remain a concern for all travellers in the island state. Some have suggested this may be due to the lack of corporate memory that exists in managerial ranks in Qantas. Others believe that KPIs in Qantas are are heavily linked to manager bonuses. Whatever the case, Hobartians will be hoping that the latest changes by Qantas will finally offer what they have been demanding for a long time: a consistent and accessible service that connects to mainland ports.