airline seats being dumped en masse ?
 

it appears that the public aren't buying airline seats in any great number to anywhere at the moment.


Air Asia last week was doing $67 one way from Australia to ports beyond KUL like Langkawi, Penang etc. ($67 is basically the taxes)


Scoot dumping seats to SIN from $139 (OOL/SIN) in school holidays.


Even trans-tasman is being dumped.


eg. BNE/DUD/BNE in ski season for $330 return. (add $50 for checked baggage)


+ $1000 return fares to Europe.


All of these prices include taxes & charges.


& yes, for some of these deals there maybe only a dozen seats per flight, but it's not good to be continually selling loss leaders as public then thinks this is the benchmark & won't book until fares approach these sort of levels.


Talking to a few travel agents, they say they are doing lots of costings, but very few people are paying or in the case of a package, putting down a deposit. They both said that many people are waiting til it gets cheaper to book/pay.


Any cheaper & airlines will be closing down.

Hawaii prices have tanked also, Jetstar offers $500-$600 return flights most weeks on sales.

Got an email last week from AirNZ offering Australia-USA for $900 return.

Great time to Explore the world!

apart from residential real estate in cities, there seems to be no consumer confidence out there at present.


Seems to be a race to the bottom, where everyone wants things cheaper, but everyone also likes to be paid. Doesn't work.


Everyone seems to be trying to give stuff away & the opposition seems to think they need to do the same.

somewhat at odds with airnz then?

apparently keeping the 767's for now. a mate on them tells me they're keeping them for a while yet.

they wouldnt be doing that if they didnt have work for them.

United and American are looking at launching USA-NZ flights. If that happens, there goes NZ's profitability.

yeh strange that QF haven't launched a 787 onto AKL/LAX with J*.


NZ have up to 3 x 777's AKL/LAX.

maybe jq bought the wrong 787 for akl-lax?

if there was any money that route, qf would have kept the 330 on it?

NZ appear to be making money on it.


Why else would UA & AA be looking at it ?

They were making money on it.

The aircraft were redeployed so that Joyce's could take part in a pissing contest with Borghetti.

We all know how that went :ugh:

Maybe you are really in a depression
 

Remember 2008 and then the Trillions of dollars of money printing.Maybe reality is starting to kick in.

I was told by one of the senior managers in AKL that he had been told by Lesley Grant that the reason the aircraft were going to operate domestically was because they could make "more" money doing so.

The inference being they were chasing greater returns despite AKL-LAX-AKL being in the black.

In general, is it not true that four departures per day will yield more profit than two? Especially four segments of four hours compared to a couple of 11 hour sectors with higher fuel costs per mile/km/parsec?

That said, I have no doubt that the 330 made money on the route. When QF abandoned AKL they also jettisoned a host of loyal FF members. Those customers will only be won back, if ever, at high cost. It was an idealogical (as opposed to just plain logical) move. In 45 years doing this I have seen some pretty dumb management moves. Robbing International to engage in a domestic pissing contest was one of the most pig-ignorant.

Every time that I fly a half load PER-MEL I wonder who is playing at The Met. Or The Gardens. Or if I should renew my subscription to "The New Yorker"?

Getting back to the initial premise of a silent seat sale: Many anecdotal indicators* show that the spending brakes have been hit hard. I have two car dealers ringing daily about specific new cars that I saw five weeks ago. That can't be good. This morning the line up at security was exactly one person long. Usually it is fifty or so.

*Some people collect stamps. I collect bad news. Judge accordingly.

inbox this am, full of more incredible airfare deals. Yes they may only be 5 seats per flight at loss leader fares, (eg. $67 one way to KUL & beyond inc all taxes) but the stream is constant.

All govts & the media, need to be talking up the economy & boost consumer confidence FAST !!!

Profit = Revenue - Cost

If we accept this and that there is limited ability to differentiate to add significantly enhanced revenue, the only option is to reduce cost.

If we want to maintain our wage levels, then we had better be pretty jolly good (read efficient and productive) at what we do.

To do this, we need the best, most reliable processes and should be constantly trying to change them to make them better. Do we do this or are we stuck in the "we've always done it this way" mentality.

Our job security is up to us - we, the every day employees need to be the leaders and all drive the cost down.

Word on the block is the 763s are about to get an refit and product upgrade, they last had AVOD Installed about 5 years ago.

guess many airlines are now trying to hedge their future fuel costs at todays prices as much as possible, without the hedging costing them too much.

JQ now dumping OOL-SYD-MEL/CHC flights in ski season from $191 to $235 return !!!


Take out taxes & they are not netting much on these flights.


Where will it end ?


A race to the bottom.


Things must be rough out there for airlines catering for the leisure traveller & for those airlines, who's regular pax are deciding whether to have a flying holiday or not ?