<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nonce:
1. Why wouldn't BA buy it and operate LHR-SYD direct? They already have the 777 in their fleet and would kit it out in the standard 4 class config or 3 class (no Y). QF could then code share on the daily flights which would be in addition to the QF A380 services. Seems to me like a bit of a BA thing to do.</font>
Yes, it would seem to be a more attractive proposion to BA. There was a similar question asked recently on the BA forum about teh A340-500 for this route, and a similar fuel/range analysis shows it was again marginal. The 772 would be more attractive for BA, but they are not in the spending mode right now
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<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Apparently AA *really* want QF to start flying into Dallas instead of adding new LAX services.
I really want QF to operate into DFW as well. Forget Dallas, Fort Worth is the place to be
. They have the aircraft to do that now, which is one of two reasons for buying the 744-ER's.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">SYD- Frankfurt has been doing very well for QF as of late and SYD- Zurich would give QF a one stop to anywhere in Europe via new OW partner elect Swiss, with far less back tracking and the ability to avoid LHR.
FRA has been doing ok due to the heavy discounting they have been undertaking in order to fill the seats. Just how commercially beneficial the loads have been is not available to us. ZRH would certainly make a good connection point for Europe. However, if we are looking at a non-stop to ZRH, it would have to be from SYD. Is there enough SYD-Europe traffic to warrant it? Currently QF operates QF5, QF31 to Europe via SIN and QF1 via BKK as well as codeshares on these routes with BA. So that is 3 x 744 worth of pax on QF metal from SYD to Europe. Some of these pax stop at SIN/BKK and some continue to LHR or FRA. How many of these 3 x 744 worth of pax are destined for non-LHR/FRA European ports and do not want to stop over on LHR? I think the numbers might be marginal to fill available seats on a 772-LR SYD-ZRH.
Also remember that such a routing might not be in the best interest of a particular QF shareholder. Granted that the BA shareholding in QF has declines in recent times, but they are still a major shareholder and will likely have some influent (rightly or wrongly) in the routing to Europe.
And you can get to many European destinations with a single stop/change at HGK using CX. Some even have QF code shares, such as QF3861 HKG-FCO.
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">As for the hubbing thing in SIN, unless QF buy an Asian airline to hub into what is the point?
No need for a Asian airline to have hubbing advantages. I was referring to the passenger hubbing, not airline hubbing. The QF plan is to get all European destined passengers from their nearest major port (BNE/MEL/SYD/ADL/PER/DWN) into SIN. If the timing of arriving flights is close, then these aircraft can continue to various European destinations and the pax transferred to the correct flight.
QF has been doing this for many years. They used to do it in HNL for flights from BNE/SYD/MEL to LAX/SFO. Three flights would converge into HNL late at night from the Australian east caost. Passengers then changed to the LAX/SFO destined flights.
With common timing it is an efficient way to get people from multiple sources to multiple destinations.