A CX newsletter a couple of weeks ago said that they were conducting a review of their seating and aircraft type requirements on the Australian flights. We are told to watch this space and this has fuelled these recent rumours and not just the same rumours about the 777 going there that have existed for years.

Isn't it kind of difficult to compete on the "Kangaroo Route" vs the likes of SQ, QF, and EK without a first class offering? Won't BA be bringing some premium customers through HKG who will expect first class to the bigger cities in Oz?

Also, I'm not sure the A359 will be cheaper to operate to Oz than the A333 when you factor in the price of the aircraft. My understanding is that the A350 will be a true long haul aircraft whereas the A330 is more well suited for medium haul. HKG to OZ is at the outer limits of the medium haul range. That is why the A330 is so well suited for it. There is a lot of extra structure that goes into a true long haul airplane like the A350 or the 777-300ER, so I don't think either will be used for Oz. The more likely A333 replacement is the B787-10.

With QF pulling out of PER-HKG I think CX going to double-daily there is almost a certainty. However I was led to believe (recent flight with a 3/F guy) that we are already running close to the maximum seats per week we are permitted to operate between HKG & Aus under the current agreement.

Top 10 International Passengers by Uplift/Discharge City Pairs.

Be interesting to see if this changes once the EK/QF tie up begins and if CX/BA will make more of a dent as its not having much of an impact at the moment.

Surprised SQ almost carries double the pax CX does to/from Aust.

International Passengers by Major Airlines - Year ended December 2012

International Airline Activity—Monthly Publications

For info:
There are presently 2 x daily BA flights LHR to HKG.
One B747 and one B777. Arriving into HKG at 14:20 and 16:20 respectively.

Any travel agents out there with rough ideas on the number of pax currently feeding through to Australia on QF?

Just been announced from Nov 15 the A380 will be doing the 14:20 service.

China Dragon
 

China Dragon, (what was KA) will be the part of the Australian services shake up doing Darwin and Cairns. They will have spare capacity having lost BLR to mainline.
I'm betting on a mixed order of 380 and 8i.

Yeah like it's not working already and we need to "shake it up":rolleyes: