Qantas shakeup axes London routes, cuts fleet

Qantas have announced a major shakeup of its routes, fleet, and services

Qantas have announced a major shakeup of its routes, fleet, and services as it struggles with profitability. The biggest change is on the London route, with a dramatic cutback in services, but there is to be a new First Class lounge at Singapore and Hong Kong.

Qantas is to lay off 1000 staff, scrap four Boeing 747s, and defer delivery of the final six A380s by up to six years. Qantas plans to acquire up to 110 Airbus aircraft, worth more than $9.4 billion at list prices. It will also scrap the long-haul route to Buenos Aires, while launching Jetstar Japan as a new low-cost carrier, along with another new premium airline based in Asia, with a new name, new aircraft and new look.

It is the London route however, where the biggest change will come. No longer will passengers be able to route via Hong Kong or Bangkok to London. The only option will be Singapore. From early 2012, British Airways and Qantas will stage stopover points at Bangkok and Hong Kong, with Qantas Flying from Australia, and BA from London, and passengers transferring from one aircraft to another at the midway point. The only way to ensure a seamless flight is to go via Singapore.

At Singapore, and also at Hong Kong, there is to be a large new First Class lounge. The current First Lounge at Hong Kong is only a few years old, but at Singapore the lounge is getting very old and tired. Qantas plan to give it a huge makeover, with designs by Marc Newson, to bring it into line with the top notch lounge in Sydney.

The precise details of the changes are that Qantas will maintain one daily A380 flight from each of Sydney and Melbourne to London via Singapore, however the 747 from Melbourne to London via Hong Kong, the 747 from Sydney to London via Bangkok will only go half way, so in effect this represents a halving of services to London. Also, there will not be First Class on routes except the Qantas A380 to London via Singapore, which again represents a cut back.

British Airways will fly continue to fly twice a day from London to Sydney via Singapore, replacing the 777 with a Boeing 747. However the Bangkok to Sydney service has been axed. Despite speculation that BA had hoped to pull out of the Australian route, and have been offering in Australian newspapers great deals to fly in First for Business Class fares to London to drive up business, this seems to confirm their commitment to the route. However BA will no reinstate the Melbourne service which was axed in 1995, reinstated in 2001, and axed again in 2006. BA is also now to add three more flights, so they fly to Hong Kong three times a day, on three days a week.

Other changes include swapping the direct flights between Sydney and Buenos Aires to Santiago from next year, which allows a closer link up with LAN. Four of the older Boeing 747s will be retired, however their replacement A380s will be differed by up to six years. There is also the purchase of up to 110 new A320 aircraft, and the loss of around 1,000 jobs as a result of all the cutbacks to the network.