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Following
last week’s announcement of significant changes to its domestic
operations, the Qantas Group has now confirmed changes to its international services as
it continues to manage the impact of high oil prices.
The
changes include market exits, capacity cuts and the replacement of Qantas services with Jetstar services on a number of
routes.
The Chief Executive Officer of Qantas, Mr Geoff Dixon,
said, “We have to look closely at each individual market, including the number of frequencies we operate
and which of our flying businesses is better suited to serve those destinations.”
Japan and South East Asia
will be the most affected markets by the schedule
changes.
“The Japan-Far North Queensland market has also been particularly difficult for Qantas for a number
of years. At current fuel prices, the group would lose more than $100 million operating to Japan
under our existing schedule,” Mr Dixon said.
The changes to the Japan schedule
include:
- the withdrawal of Qantas’ thrice-weekly Melbourne-Tokyo (Narita) A330 return services from
September 2008;
-
a reduction in Qantas’ Sydney-Tokyo (Narita) A330 return services from nine to seven return
services per week from September 2008;
-
Jetstar’s withdrawal from the Cairns-Osaka-Nagoya route from December 2008;
- the replacement of Qantas’ 14 weekly
Boeing 767 Cairns-Tokyo (Narita) services with a daily Jetstar
non-stop Airbus A330 two-class service from December 2008; and
- the introduction of new Gold Coast-Tokyo (Narita) services five times per week, operated by
Jetstar with two-class A330s from December 2008, in addition to Jetstar’s daily Sydney-Gold
Coast-Osaka services.
Under the new schedules, the Qantas Group
will still offer more than 11,500 seats per week – between Japan and Queensland.
To support the schedule changes, Jetstar
will need to free up Airbus A330 aircraft and, as a result, will:
- withdraw from its Sydney-Kuala Lumpur operation to make available an A330 aircraft; and
- replace its existing three weekly A330 services that operated between Sydney and Ho Chi
Minh City with five A320 return services on the new route of Sydney-Darwin-Ho Chi Minh City
from September 2008.
Jetstar
will also replace Qantas on:
- the Perth-Denpasar route, with up to four Jetstar A320 services taking over from Qantas’
Boeing 737-800 services from December 2008; and
- Perth-Jakarta, with three Jetstar A320 return services per week replacing the existing three
Qantas B737-800 services from December 2008.
Qantas
will also close its pilot base in Cairns, with around 40 Cairns-based pilots
returning to Sydney or other bases.
“Qantas will maintain its existing cabin crew base in Cairns to service domestic operations, and
Jetstar will establish a new base for pilots and cabin crew in Perth from October,”
Mr Dixon said.
As a result of the international schedule changes,
a number
of job losses in Cairns and Japan is expected. These were in addition to those flagged in
last week's
announcement, which were expected to be in the low hundreds, and would also be
managed initially on a voluntary basis.
In addition to the Asian flight changes, Qantas
will reduce its Boeing 747-400 Sydney-Los
Angeles services from 17 to 15 per week, following the commencement of A380 flights on the route
at the end of the year.
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