Qantas To Offer Nonstop Brisbane-LA Service

[Wirraway]

Dow Jones
Thursday February 12, 4:03 PM AEDT

Australia's Qantas To Offer Nonstop Brisbane-LA Service

SYDNEY (Dow Jones)--Australia's Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN.AU) said Thursday it will beef up the airline's services to the U.S. by commencing direct flights between Brisbane and Los Angeles.

It is the first time any airline has offered nonstop scheduled services on the route, said the nation's flag carrier.

Chief Executive Geoff Dixon said Qantas will operate three Boeing 747 nonstop Brisbane-Los Angeles services a week from June 14.

The flights are in addition to Qantas' daily flights from Brisbane to Los Angeles via Auckland, and will take the number of services on the route to 10 a week.

"These new services make it possible, for the first time ever, for American tourists to fly direct to the Sunshine State, and provide easier access to the many world-class tourist attractions throughout Queensland," Dixon said in a statement.

"They also offer Queenslanders a more convenient way to get to the U.S.," he added.

Qantas has significantly boosted capacity between Australia and the U.S. over the past six months, said Dixon.

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[Keg]

Geez, what'll Jim Thorn whinge about now with the big Q! ;) :}

Admittedly, he hasn't mentioned much about BA (South America) recently. After writing for years how QF should be flying to Beunos Aeries (never could spell that place), QF tried it for a couple of years and never made money on the place. Let's hope a currency free fall doesn't stuff up BNE-LAX!! :ok:

[Wirraway]

Fri "Sydney Morning Herald"

Qantas to fly direct from Brisbane to LA
By Scott Rochfort
February 13, 2004

Qantas sought to silence any lingering concerns over its stranglehold on the capacity-constrained Australia-US route yesterday by announcing its first direct flights between Brisbane and Los Angeles.

After months of protests that the lack of competition and high passenger load factors on the route were severely hurting inbound tourism, Qantas said it planned to start the tri-weekly direct services on June 14.

The new services will be added to Qantas's daily Brisbane-Los Angeles services, which fly through Auckland.

Qantas also plans to increase its services from Australia to the US from 34 - of which 24 are direct - to a record 37 a week late next month.

With United Airlines the only other airline to fly directly to the US, Qantas flies two daily direct services between Sydney and Los Angeles, one between Melbourne and Los Angeles, and tri-weekly services to from Sydney to New York via Los Angeles.

It is estimated Qantas makes around one-third of its overall profits from the route.

After raising concerns last year that the 80 to 90 per cent load factors on the Australia-LA route were deterring American tourists flying to Australia because of the lack of seats, the Australian Tourist Commission's managing director Ken Boundy said: "I guess the concern is not as great as it might have been."

Aided by Hawaiian Airlines' plans to start four weekly flights to Australia in May, the new announcement appears have to silenced criticisms from the Federal Tourism Minister, Joe Hockey, who only two months ago said there was a "compelling case" for a third foreign airline to fly direct services on the route.

Issuing a press release welcoming the new Brisbane flights, Mr Hockey's office declined to offer any further comment.

After successfully "ring-fencing" Qantas's lucrative LA route from the Australia-Singapore Free Trade Agreement last September, Federal Transport Minister John Anderson offered no comment.

A spokesman for Mr Anderson made an undertaking to reopen talks with Singapore - and possibly allow Singapore Airlines to compete directly on the route - when there was "greater stability in the global aviation environment".

He added: "We're always talking with Singapore but nothing is proposed at this stage."

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[Anti Skid On]

Airline managers are mugs. The US economy and dollar means overseas travel is at a low for them - and Air NZ has just introduced AKL-SFO (Think that's the code for San Francisco, though it may be Sanford Orlando!!)

Both seem a bit hopeful.