Originally Posted by
jsloan
I'm not sure where exactly this goes, so I'll put it here.
RoutesOnline just
posted a Qantas service expansion: Brisbane to SFO (3x weekly) and Brisbane to Chicago (!) (4x weekly).
I can't imagine that there's room for two BNE-ORD flights -- unless maybe UA wants to do the other three days or something -- so that probably kills the short-term chances for UA Australia travel from ORD. I wouldn't be surprised to see UA add SFO-BNE as a response, though.
With the approved QF/AA JV, they promised to add at least three new routes within two years. These are the first two, even though the SFO flight is really just a shift of 3x weekly flights from LAX. I wouldn't be surprised for the last one to be SYD-SEA or MEL-DFW (long, but shorter than PER-LHR). Both SYD/MEL-LAX are 9x weekly and QF could simultaneously reduce one of those to daily while adding another 3x/4x weekly flight to add a new route without adding too much capacity.
With SFO-MEL only being 3x weekly and MEL having higher demand than BNE, something that would be interesting would be bumping SFO-MEL to 4x weekly and adding 3x weekly SFO-BNE to give double daily service to Australia. However, LAX-BNE is a larger market than SFO-BNE and UA has LAX as their primary Australia gateway, so LAX-BNE is probably more likely than SFO-BNE.