wessex19
21st Jun 2007, 03:59
having a look on crikey.com thought this was worth food for thought!!!
By aviation writer Ben Sandilands
The overnight news from the Paris Air Show has consequences for Australia’s tourism operators, its airports, anyone thinking of overseas holidays and of course its airlines.
If the dots are connected in terms of the big jet spending spree now going at full throttle and full bottle in the marquees and chalets out at the otherwise seldom-used Le Bourget airport at least $8.5 billion in new airliners are getting pointed at the Australian market in the next one to five years.
Not by Qantas, or Virgin Blue, but Emirates ($4.8 billion), Fly Asian Express ($2.7 billion) and Thai ($0.8 billion).
These are the catalogue figures, not the secret ‘deal’ figures, but don’t include finance costs for the latter two, while the favourite Qantas ‘bete noir’ Emirates, which is doubling in size every five years, is set to treble its seats to Australia even sooner, and seems to run on cash.
And more is expected before the show is over at week’s end from Singapore Airlines according to one whisper, and Kingfisher, which intends to become India’s answer to Qantas, which has been almost totally unopposed until now on the fast growing non-stop services between both countries.
These orders, 12 more giant A380s for Emirates, a total of 23 mid sized A330s for Fly Asian Express and Thai, and the anticipated confirmation of 20 new technology A350s for Singapore Airlines and extra assorted Airbuses for Kingfisher, stack up some interesting numbers against the $3.5 billion for Virgin Blue’s trans Pacific Boeing 777s and $10 billion in extra A380s and 45 Boeing 787s for Qantas/Jetstar.
Emirates says it is looking at replacing all its major services with 500 seat A380s, with orders for 55 of them and plans to buy 100 less grandiose 787s or A350s to serve smaller cities or shorter routes.
That means using at least 16 A380s to serve its existing schedules to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, compared to Qantas orders for 20 of the biggest ever passenger jet but spread over the US as well as Middle Ea$$st and Europe/UK markets where Emirates has surged into prominence.
But the first effect of the buying spree seems certain to be seen in Melbourne’s ‘budget’ airport, Avalon, where Fly Asian Express founder and chairman Tony Fernandes is determined to launch his shiny new A330s with tiny but very cheap seats by around October.
By aviation writer Ben Sandilands
The overnight news from the Paris Air Show has consequences for Australia’s tourism operators, its airports, anyone thinking of overseas holidays and of course its airlines.
If the dots are connected in terms of the big jet spending spree now going at full throttle and full bottle in the marquees and chalets out at the otherwise seldom-used Le Bourget airport at least $8.5 billion in new airliners are getting pointed at the Australian market in the next one to five years.
Not by Qantas, or Virgin Blue, but Emirates ($4.8 billion), Fly Asian Express ($2.7 billion) and Thai ($0.8 billion).
These are the catalogue figures, not the secret ‘deal’ figures, but don’t include finance costs for the latter two, while the favourite Qantas ‘bete noir’ Emirates, which is doubling in size every five years, is set to treble its seats to Australia even sooner, and seems to run on cash.
And more is expected before the show is over at week’s end from Singapore Airlines according to one whisper, and Kingfisher, which intends to become India’s answer to Qantas, which has been almost totally unopposed until now on the fast growing non-stop services between both countries.
These orders, 12 more giant A380s for Emirates, a total of 23 mid sized A330s for Fly Asian Express and Thai, and the anticipated confirmation of 20 new technology A350s for Singapore Airlines and extra assorted Airbuses for Kingfisher, stack up some interesting numbers against the $3.5 billion for Virgin Blue’s trans Pacific Boeing 777s and $10 billion in extra A380s and 45 Boeing 787s for Qantas/Jetstar.
Emirates says it is looking at replacing all its major services with 500 seat A380s, with orders for 55 of them and plans to buy 100 less grandiose 787s or A350s to serve smaller cities or shorter routes.
That means using at least 16 A380s to serve its existing schedules to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, compared to Qantas orders for 20 of the biggest ever passenger jet but spread over the US as well as Middle Ea$$st and Europe/UK markets where Emirates has surged into prominence.
But the first effect of the buying spree seems certain to be seen in Melbourne’s ‘budget’ airport, Avalon, where Fly Asian Express founder and chairman Tony Fernandes is determined to launch his shiny new A330s with tiny but very cheap seats by around October.