Jet* on NZ domestic??
 

Qantas is considering using its budget arm Jetstar on the New Zealand domestic routes, potentially putting further pressure on rivals Air New Zealand and Pacific Blue, chief executive-in-waiting Alan Joyce says. :ooh:


Mr Joyce runs Jetstar and will take over the top Qantas job from Geoff Dixon in November.

Rival Air New Zealand says the domestic market cannot sustain three airlines on the main trunk route long-term.

But Mr Joyce said Qantas would not be the one to leave: "The Qantas group will not be pulling out of domestic."

Qantas flies between the main centres and to Rotorua and Queenstown, largely to support its trans-Tasman network.

"It is a very competitive market. We think it is an important market for the Qantas group ... and we are always looking at better ways of operating and what is the right mix of Jetstar and Qantas in that market.

"To us, it's not a decision of whether we should be in or out, it is a decision of how we service it and that is one of the things that we are looking at."

The Tasman market also had "heat on it" and fares have been cut in a escalating price war to stimulate demand as a result of airlines increasing capacity.

Emirates would add the A380 in February, Pacific Blue was adding flights to Auckland and Thai Airways was expected to replace a direct service to Bangkok with a one-stop service via Australia.

"At the top of our list at the moment ... Jetstar is looking at expansion on the trans-Tasman as well," Mr Joyce said.

Currently Jetstar flies only to Christchurch, where it has replaced several Qantas services and opened some new ones.

The Qantas brand was consolidating its core business market, Mr Joyce said.

Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe has said that if all the extra capacity eventuates over the next nine months, the Tasman would again become a loss-maker.

Mr Joyce said he was confident Qantas would be able to retain its share of the corporate market, despite Air New Zealand spending nearly $60 million on adding seat-back entertainment to its aircraft on the route, something Qantas does not have.

Qantas would catch up when it put next generation Boeing 737-800 and potentially the 787 jets on the Tasman, replacing older models. However, there were no immediate plans, he said.

A further 30 airlines could succumb to record fuel costs in the next year, but Mr Joyce doubted there would be any significant failures in Australia or New Zealand.

Just out of interest, would an A320 go into Queenstown and Rotorua ok?

A320 into Queenstown & Rotorua
 

Air NZ already fly A320 into Queenstown I think.

Rotten rua, dunno

Jetstar in NZ?

What a shame. Now its gonna go from 1 airline making a little bit of cash on the main trunk to lots of airlines making sweet FA.

Having QF as big brother means deep pockets to cause extended pain for all involved.

Been a while but I'm pretty sure qantas already has a presence on the main trunk in the form of Jetconnect, if this is still the case then
isn't really applicable.
Unless of course they keep Jetconnect going and run two brands? Geez that would really squeeze air nz from both sides.
Does anyone think thats a possibility or maybe axe Jetconnect and run with the expansion of J*?

Surely it would make sense that Jetconnect will be closed down as the 737's are looking a little frayed around the edges. Bring in some nice new shiney A320's, migrate the Jetconnect crew over to the Jetstar brand and just have the one Qantas brand flying in New Zealand. In reply to the above, I doubt the profit of a competitor is not a concern when looking to start new routes, it may be that 3 airlines flying the main trunk routes is too much, Qantas will just be hoping it will squeeze Pacific Blue out.

Why dont Qantas use A320's?

Good idea.
Give Jetconnect the A320s

Some would argue they already do.:oh:

They've got nearly 30 of them.

Townsville refueller told me that Jetconnect are getting the 787's when they come. Partly cause they can operate them cheaply and partly to end all the angry posts flying about between mainline and Jet*....he was onto his third bundy by then though.

From memory......
The runway was lengthened from about 1.6 km - 1.75 Km recently to purposely handle A320 or 737NG flights( domestic). The runway is being further expanded later this year to handle Trans-tasman flights when it's finished it'll be longer than Wellington at about 2.1 km.
Don't really like their chances of getting Trans-tasman flights anytime soon though....Other regional international ( Hamilton, Dunedin) airports have had alot of their schedules scaled back due to a lack of demand.
Although Queenstown has been growing becuase of the Aussie skiers. I don't think that Rotorua holds quite the same attraction.....

Yes, Lack of Demand would be there. I thought Rotorua was in Fiji:eek:

No....think you'll find its in western Sydney....;)

Queenstown a summer playground
 

A common misconception about ZQN is that it booms in winter. Kiwis' tend to see Queenstown as a winter destination.

The reality is that winter is the off season in ZQN, and it is the summer where the money is made to keep ZQN afloat through the rest of the year. Visitor numbers in the summer are more than double the winter, and the visitor spend during the summer is higher as well.

I Wasn't talking about total tourists persee, I was referring to international flight activity... Both Air NZ and Qantas offer additional international flights through the winter season to support strong demand from Aussie skiers (wanting direct flights for convenient short stays)..... There maybe more tourists in the summer but they aren't flying in direct from overseas.
Most of these guys have more time on their hands and enter through AKL or CHC.....And yes Queenstown is a great summer playground... .

I hear that the red-rat is pulling out of CHC-ROT soon?!
Anyone know for sure?
If Jetconnect are bleeding on domestic (not sure that they are), then Jet* would bleed worse.

Is Jetconnect still going for a all 400 fleet? Are the GPS upgrades still happening for ZQN ops?

Went in there the other day, ANZ B737 landed, ATR landed, Jetconnect B737 held then bailed out to IVC, QF B737NG had a couple of cracks at the RNAV and bailed out twice due excessive wind and turbulence. Got better and everyone was getting in. Must be a real eye opener for the QF guys coming over here ever now and then.

How many RNP approaches of the turning variety are there in the OZ B737 domestic operation?

I think QF have quite a lot of experience with RNP. They actually pioneered the RNP approach at ZQN. As for Jetconnect and ROT, anything is possible but I would be surprised if it was true.

Little bit off-topic, but how is Pacific Blue Domestic going with loads in NZ , Not bad? or empty?

QF aussie and Air NZ actually worked on the RNP approach in ZQN at the same time. However QF was first off the block and lead the RNP AR approach due to having NG B737. Air NZ had some mods required due to having B733.

QF has some big projects running with 4DT and RNP and is right at the cutting edge of PBN operations.

Air NZ is the lead operator on RNP AR operations with the A320.

Wrt handing the JetConnect NZ domestic operation to Jetstar, one thing comes to mind - Qantas started the NZ domestic flights as a feeder service for its international operations so why would they convert it to a LCC operation which obviously could not act as a feeder. As far as direct operating costs, JetConnect would be as cheap as Jetstar in all respects except for the cost of providing inflight service.