Is Qantas dropping the ball on Canada?
 

Right now, Qantas service to Vancouver (YVR) Canada is a seasonal 747 for peak summer/winter.

Air Canada has been flying YVR-SYD for some time now. They recently launched YVR-BNE, and now just announced season YVR-MEL service.

AC is flying to all 3 major East Coast Australian cities on their 787 Dreamliners.

Additionally, AC signed a co-operation agreement with VA earlier this year for codeshares and mutual frequent flyer benefits. I imagine they may try to argue for antitrust eventually.

Why is Qantas refusing to compete on services to Canada? At the very least, nonstop year-round 787 services to YVR should have already been announced.

There is significant traffic both ways, particularly for Australian workers to Whistler/Banff/Jasper. It is not one-way directional from Canada to Australia, so there is absolutely no reason for nonstop service to be dominated by a Canadian carrier.

Most of them can connect through LAX or DFW from Canada already if they want to fly QF towards Canada. A YVR service only makes sense for YVR-Australia traffic as connecting traffic available beyond YVR at YVR is limited for QF, and eastern Canada traffic is well enough served via LAX and DFW. AC has the advantage of having much stronger connecting options available within Canada from YVR. QF is also partly competing with NZ for Australia-YVR, as NZ can offer single connection service to YVR and connections beyond YVR on AC.

And few would fly into YVR to get to Banff or Jasper, it's a bit of a haul.

I dont even think Canada is on the QF radar. The airline is too busy running its FF shoppers program and introducing a credit card. But then again, they might just reach out at some stage and announce another game changing event - such as a different brand of wine, toaster or steak knives that can be bought with those valuable QF FF points.

Three reasons: 1) No OneWorld Feeder airline in Canada 2). Poor partnership arrangement with WestJet 3). Qantas Premium class cannot survive on a single destination (YVR) without feeding into a comprehensive business class network

Pretty well all Qantas long haul routes survive on either cargo (Hong Kong) or Premium fares (London, HKG, SIN, NRT, LAX, DFW, JFK). I can only think of one long haul route that survives on the back of economy passengers and that is the Manila route (PAL is not much competition) and perhaps the China market.

Vancouver is not exactly a gateway to North America from an Australian point of view. LAX, SFO and perhaps DFW meets that need very well. Qantas may have a chance if there was a OneWorld feeder airline in Canada. I can't imagine flying Business Class into Vancouver on Qantas and transfer to an Ex-Qantas metal 767 WestJet service to YYZ.

There is no fun in connecting in the USA to Canada. Even though things have improved in recent years and TSA and Immigration both have learnt to be nice to people, the transfer process can take 20 min to 2 hours. Makes any connection in YVR attractive.

Think about what you are saying.

You are saying that Canadians need to connect to another country to get to Australia, and that is OK.

Would Australians be OK with connecting through NZ and not having direct service to USA, or Kiwis OK with only going to USA via Australia?

They are two completely different countries/governments with completely different immigration rules and policies, and completely different markets.

And personally, I think SYD-YYC is a viable route. I'd expect that to me one of WestJet's first 787 planned routes.

Yes: many do, especially if you do not live in SYD or AKL (where most USA long haul depart/arrive).
There are many trans Tasman (Au NZ) flights from/to smaller Au NZ airports.
For example flying ADL-AKL-LAX (on Air NZ) is a viable option to ADL-SYD-LAX (on QF). And avoid the pain of a domestic to international terminal transfer at SYD.
I have family in NZ who prefer to transit SYD instead of AKL. (separate domestic & international terminals like SYD)

It it unknown if the management of Air Sydney (some times known as Qantas) are aware there are people who do not live in SYD.
It it unknown if the management of Air Auckland (some times known as Air NZ) are aware there are people who live south of the Bombay Hills.
Hence the many long haul flights from SYD & AKL

Canadians don't need to go through another country to get to Australia. Aussies don't need to go to another country to get to Canada. It's just not going to be with QF outside of some days of the year. You view this as some sort of outrage; it's not. Aussies have had to connect to fly to the UK for decades as we all know; it is hardly unheard of. Live in Australia or NZ and travel...you'll get used to needing a number of longer flights and connecting quite quickly.

Beat me to it. Plenty of Australians already connect to the USA and to Canada, via AKL. It's a significant priority for Air Auckland New Zealand, going after this market.

Back in post one it was stated

There is no need whatsoever , it would seem, a need for Canadians to connect in another country to get to Australia

Individual airlines will choose to serve destinations based on what they feel is the best use of the aeroplanes that they have to make the most profit

If Qantas felt that places such as Vancouver were profitable enough to serve daily all year round, I suspect that it would do so

I only wish for YYZ - SYD direct. No airplane can do it of course (unless it's weight restricted) and it will never happen. But I wish for it anyway.

Which has only recently become possible with a change in the Australia-Canada Air Service Agreement from 3000 seats/week to 9000.

We may yet see a daily QF 787 SYD-YVR, but it would be unlikely to happen until a 3rd or 4th batch of 787s arrive. The first batch of 4 is already assigned to the new QF9/10 (MEL-LHR via PER) and QF95/96 (MEL-LAX).

The 2nd batch of 4 needs to be used in some way to allow 3 747s to retire. Replacing a seasonal 747 route doesn't do much to achieve that, putting them on SYD-SFO and/or BNE-LAX would.

Is it known what QF is doing with the A380 fleet time that was flying QF9/10?

Nope, and they will probably keep it secret for as long as possible. The obvious A380 routes are SIN & HKG (which comes and goes) but they could also do something surprising like SYD-HNL-YYZ if they were too annoyed by AC :)

Nothing confirmed. Expected to use 1 for MEL/SYD-SIN/HKG and allow taking 1 out of service for the speculated midlife cabin upgrades (ie, changing J skybeds to suites and replacing PE/Y with the 787 seats) rumored to be starting next April.

I know you are joking with that routing, but yes, yes, yes! (Does QF have landing rights in YYZ? 😉 )

I am surprised AC are flying to all East Coast AUS ports now- where are the pax coming from to fill these flights? Many Canadians I know think Australia to 'too far away' and don't want to 'sit in a tin can for 15 hours'. For Aussies going northwards it one thing for ski season in Dec/ Jan/ Feb and going on to Whistler, Banff etc. but who is traveling when it's not school holidays? Vancouver is big city but nowhere near the size of US ports in terms of a business destination.