QF DFW in - SFO out
 

Anyone else hearing this rumour??

It seems that QF are going to launch into DFW next year at the expense of SFO.

What a shame that would be. :ugh:

Yes heard it prior to Nancy Bird's issues.

Ground staff in SFO reported very recently that their contract had been renewed for 8 months.

Finishing around the end of this financial year.

Reading between the lines.......

maybe VA could pick up the route from QF? Is there enough traffic on the route for 2 airlines

Yeah, based on the last time QF left SFO then VA could reliably expect to pick it up around 2025. There is a very long queue for the gates/slots.

SFO:Another poor Qantas Decision
 

Ben Sandilands
The last scheduled Qantas flight has left San Francisco for Australia and there is plausible speculation that Jetstar will take over by grabbing another Qantas A332 from its fleet and operating the route via Auckland later this year.
However there is another factor to keep in mind in Virgin Australia and its approval-pending trans Pacific alliance with Delta.
Virgin America is one of the day one users of the new San Francisco T2 (a very smooth reconstruction of what for most of the jet age was its International Terminal) which opened recently. And Delta is also a much bigger user of SFO, meaning that if Virgin Australia or a code shared Delta flight were to operate 777s non-stop from the Bay City to Melbourne, Sydney or Brisbane those flights would not just be more attractive by being several hours shorter that an A330 flying via Auckland, but inherently more cost efficient.
Last week at the launch of Virgin Australia, Richard Branson and John Borghetti (principal share holder and CEO respectively) emphasised that the they would offer both Virgin America and Delta domestic connections as alternatives to trans Pacific customers.
SFO’s T2 all-domestic terminal has an airside pedestrian link to T1, the older international and domestic terminal. It is a much more straight forward situation for connecting between domestic and international flights than most users of LAX would experience, especially inbound given the simpler protocols the US uses for international departures.
Which means that San Francisco raises, in a new area, the issue some travellers have with Qantas trying to shunt them onto Jetstar flights.
At the moment Qantas, in another stroke of networking brilliance, argues that those of its customers that want to fly to San Francisco will change planes in LAX. This is every bit as thick headed as their position that travellers to Istanbul or Berlin or Milan will cheerfully fly there via London Heathrow (adding half a day to flight times) and suffer the miseries of one of the worst western airport experiences on the planet because Qantas is tragically clueless as to what people will tolerate in modern times.
The Qantas indifference to San Francisco travellers creates a golden opportunity for Virgin Australia, so the speculation to date is not unreasonable. And of course United, with recently upgraded premium product, has daily non-stop 747s from the Bay City to Australian ports anyhow.
Qantas has left San Francisco in favor of launching less than daily 747-400ER flights to Dallas-Forth Worth, the mega hub of its American Airlines oneworld partner. This is a very long route, and the return flights will reach Sydney via Brisbane because of unfavorable headwinds flying south-west across the Pacific. It would not be surprising if a pattern of unscheduled technical stops north-east bound on the outward journeys to DFW emerges.
While there are some good reasons for Qantas linking DFW and the AA network, it is fair to say the handing over of its SFO travellers to other full service competitors may prove to be another example of deficient management.
This choice, to trade SFO capacity for DFW capacity, was forced on Qantas by its woeful fleet planning decisions, which include no 777s (ever) and no 787s that do anything useful until who-knows-when?

One Comment

1. ggm
   Posted May 9, 2011 at 9:50 am
   About a quarter of my flights are via LAX. SFO was a useful alternate, but to be honest with the change to Q using a smaller inbound arrivals hall, the awfulness of this airport has mostly been mitigated.
   Outbound, its still a mess. A nasty good-bye to America.
   Dropping SFO and Vancouver really reduced brand value for me.

Interesting their decision... but maybe I got the loads on a good few days as the loads are chokkas at present

Yes, just another in the litany of cretinous decisions made by Qantas's very own, "Smartest Guy's In the Room". :ugh:

Further Roo Emasculation
 

I thought testicles could only be removed once

Comments from several 744 drivers suggest that a high number of DFW-BNE sectors wont make the return without a tech stop for fuel.

How will QF manage the situation of drivers going out of hours ?

Boofhead Management
 

I'll bet no one in there thought of that scenario.
Slips in Fiji look likely if winds are too strong

Opstop and refuel into FIJI, takes 45 minutes on the ground. Should be no problem if the pilots extend to 20 hours duty. However, with the current management attitude, I am not sure how many pilots will wish to extend !

it only takes one out of three!!!!!

Virgin/Delta Opportunity ?
 

This could prove to be a very good opportunity for Virgin.
LAX is a bit like LHR....a mess.SFO on the other hand is comparative bliss to transit.
SFO via AKL with Jetstar?Most people would rather pull their own eyelashes out

Why would anyone go SFO via AKL with Jetstar when one can go the same route with Air NZ and be treated like a human being?

I often use SFO as an inbound and outbound gateway to the USA using Air NZ, the much better J Class configuration on the NZ 777 makes the extra small amount of time taken worth it when compared with QF Business Class on the Dugong.

I could be wrong..but by the time you land, taxy in, refuel, taxi out and takeoff, I dont think you could do it in 45 minutes total....and can you PLAN a flight working on the fact that the crew will extend?

A 45 minute "splash and dash" in the middle of the night at NAN is not very difficult with a bit of prior planning. The wind and traffic situation usually allows for a landing on 03 and take off on 21. However you must allow for the loss of ground speed in the descent, arrival and landing. Ditto for the departure and climb - say about 75 minutes to get to the first way point en route assuming the same flight plan track. Done it a few times over the years.

DFW is simply not reliably doable in the US TS season when you're planned to arrive at 1300. It's not easy to carry a tempo for 15 hours. Then there is BNE with a planned arrival of 0500 in the fog season. Who plans this??? With a duty period planned at 17:30, there's not much time to bugger about.

777-200LR would do it non stop, no problems. Why dont they put a 777 on the route?...oh I just remembered......

Well this little Jaba is not doing Brisbane-melbourne-Auckland-SFO on Jetstar, holidays or price or any reason. :eek:

The Borg's B777 is going to win. Anybody want to buy several hundred thousand QF FF Points?

Really?

Just checked JQ website

MELSIN return fare departing MEL 07JUN and returning 21JUN

Jetsaver fare (allows you to check a bag...wow!):
JQ direct MELSIN - $748.19
JQ via DRW - $1025.31

Then I thought I'd check expensive, full service, legacy SQ for the same dates:
Sweet deals fare - $995.16

I was going to check EK and QF, but I kind of didn't think I needed to.

Strong loads via DRW on JQ? Maybe with people flying to DRW.