Qantas

Qantas Group selects Leap engines to power Airbus A320neo aircraft

The Qantas Group has announced that it has selected CFM International LEAP-1A engines to power its fleet of 78 Airbus A320neo aircraft. Read more

Video: A younger view of the Airbus A380

Here is a new video from Airbus taking you on a tour of their A380 flagship airliner.

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Korean Air wins World's Most Innovative Airline at World Travel Awards

Korean Air last night received the accolade of being named the World’s Most Innovative Airline at The World Travel Awards Grand Final Ceremony 2011, held in Doha, Qatar.
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Allied Pilots Association terms Qantas situation 'highly unfortunate'

The Allied Pilots Association (APA), certified collective bargaining agent for the 10,000 pilots of American Airlines, characterised the situation at Qantas as ‘highly unfortunate’. Read more

JAL confirms oneworld membership at first Governing Board

Chief Executives from oneworld’s member airlines gathered for their first Governing Board of what is turning out to be a breakthrough year for the alliance.

It was the first time they had convened since:

• Japan Airlines reaffirmed its membership of the grouping in February and then filed for anti-trust immunity with American Airlines to deepen their co-operation across the Pacific – and the first oneworld Governing Board meeting attended by JAL’s new President Masaru Onishi since his appointment on 1 February.

• India’s leading carrier and only five-star airline Kingfisher Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding as its first step towards joining oneworld.

• The US Department of Transportation gave tentative approval in February to the application by oneworld’s transatlantic partners American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Finnair and Royal Jordanian for anti-trust immunity across the Atlantic – and the European Commission began market testing of proposed remedies in a key step towards approval of the proposed transatlantic joint business agreement between American, BA and Iberia.

It is also the first oneworld Governing Board meeting in a year that will see Russia’s leading domestic carrier S7 Airlines join the alliance.

oneworld Governing Board Chairman Gerard Arpey, Chairman and Chief Executive of American Airlines, said: “This time 12 months ago, oneworld was celebrating its 10^th anniversary.  Since then, oneworld has taken a series of significant steps towards establishing itself firmly as the world’s premier global airline alliance.

“We added one more leading airline, Mexicana, in November and look forward to welcoming on board Russia’s S7 Airlines later this year with India’s Kingfisher Airlines to follow next year.

“Not only does our line-up of members include the finest airline brands in the world, our collection of networks delivers the best coverage in the markets that matter most throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. We believe our focus on the quality, rather than quantity, of members has been the right approach.”

“Meantime, we have been able to welcome Japan Airlines’ reaffirmation to oneworld.  It is very good to have Masaru Onishi among us.   We respect JAL’s alliance review was an important decision for the airline and the government of Japan.  We believe they made the right choice for JAL’s many stakeholders, for Japan’s national interests and for consumers.”

Mr Arpey noted that this year had seen the biggest progress in oneworld’s history in deepening links between its member airlines: “We expect our applications for anti-trust immunity across the Atlantic and Pacific to be approved soon, levelling the alliance playing field between North America and Europe and ensuring that alliance competition remains robust between North America and Asia. Both initiatives will enable oneworld to offer our customers even better services and benefits.”

oneworld had taken significant strides in many other areas too, completing its biggest yet airport co-location project, bringing all on-line airlines from across all five passenger terminals into just two at its biggest European hub, London Heathrow, and increasing its lead in offering the widest range of alliance consumer fares.

Mr Arpey concluded: “For us, the key aim of all this activity is simple -to establish oneworld further firmly as the premier airline alliance, delivering to both our customers and member airlines services and benefits beyond the reach of any individual airline and making it easier and more rewarding to reach more places more easily on a quality network of the best brands in the business.”

Significant progress in expanding co-operation with Japan Airlines

Considerable progress has been made in expanding co-operation between JAL and its oneworld partners since the airline reaffirmed its membership of the alliance, following a review of its alliance strategy conducted as part of its overall restructuring programme, on 9 February this year.

Three days later it applied with American Airlines to the US Department for Transportation for anti-trust immunity for a joint business agreement between North America and Asia, and notified Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism of their transaction. By working more closely together, the two airlines will be able to provide more seamless links for connecting passengers, expand customer choice by offering new routes and supporting existing routes that would not be economically viable for the airlines individually.  This will enable them to improve efficiency, find opportunities to lower costs and have greater ability to invest in products, services and fleets.

American Airlines has also taken steps to serve Tokyo Haneda, which is JAL’s main domestic hub.  American applied in February for slots to serve the airport from Los Angeles and New York JFK with flights that would also carry the JL code, subject to regulatory approvals.

British Airways and JAL are expanding their code-sharing agreement significantly, more than doubling the number of European destinations served by flights operated by the UK airline with the JL prefix.  Nine routes were added last week with another four to follow later this month, taking to 23 the number of cities in Europe served by these joint services.

Meantime, preparations are moving ahead for the transfer this November of British Airways operations at Tokyo Narita into Terminal 2, alongside those of JAL and all other on-line oneworld partners.

Other oneworld member airlines are also expanding code-sharing with JAL.  Its JL code has recently been added to flights by Mexicana to its Mexico City hub and on more routes served by Qantas subsidiary Jetstar.

At London Heathrow, oneworld’s biggest European hub, JAL and all other oneworld on-line partners, along with some BA services, have recently consolidated operations in Terminal 3.  JAL has just started sharing BA’s lounges for premium customers there.  Plans are being developed to enable JAL to share its oneworld partners’ lounges at more airports worldwide.

oneworld Governing Board Chairman, American Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Gerard Arpey, said: “Japan Airlines is a highly valued member of oneworld and we are all committed to supporting JAL in its restructuring to create an even stronger partnership for the benefit of all our stakeholders.  The rapid progress we have achieved so far is testimony to that commitment.”

Japan Airlines President Masaru Onishi said: “We analysed our alliance strategy in great detail before reaffirming our oneworld membership.  oneworld is clearly the alliance of best quality, with excellent airline partners, extensive global coverage and best overall alliance proposition.  The progress we have made with our oneworld partners since then, and our meeting today, has confirmed we made the right decision.

“We at Japan Airlines are excited at the prospects of further developing our relationships with our oneworld partners. We also firmly believe that being part of oneworld can strongly support JAL at a time when we are striving towards the revival of our business, which we are determined to achieve.”

The oneworld facts:

oneworld brings together some of the best and biggest names in the airline business – American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas and Royal Jordanian, and around 20 affiliates including American Eagle, Dragonair, LAN Argentina, LAN Ecuador and LAN Peru.  Russia’s S7 Airlines will join the alliance in 2010 with India’s Kingfisher Airlines on track to follow in 2011, subject to regulatory approvals.  Between them, these airlines:

• Serve 800 airports in nearly 150 countries, with some 9,000 daily departures.
• Offer nearly 550 airport lounges for premium customers.
• Carry some 340 million passengers a year.
• Operate a combined fleet of almost 2,500 aircraft.
• Generate more than US$100 billion annual revenues in total.

The only alliance with airlines based in South America, Australia or Asia’s Middle East, oneworld enables its members to offer their customers more services and benefits than any airline can provide on its own.  These include a broader route network, opportunities to earn and redeem frequent flyer miles and points across the combined oneworld network and more airport lounges.   oneworld also offers more alliance fares than any of its competitors.

oneworld was voted the World’s Leading Airline Alliance for the seventh year running in the latest (2009) World Travel Awards.   It is the only winner of this award since it was introduced in 2003.

Etihad expands codeshare flights in Australia

Etihad Airways has increased the destinations available for passengers travelling to Australia by expanding its codeshare agreement with Qantas.

As part of the agreement, the Etihad two-letter ‘EY’ code is now placed on flights from Sydney to Ayers Rock (Uluru), Alice Springs, Canberra, Hobart and Melbourne and flights from Brisbane to Cairns.

James Hogan, Etihad Airways’ chief executive, said: “The expansion of this codeshare agreement with Qantas reaffirms our commitment to passengers around the world who are flying to Australia and want to visit towns and cities outside the key gateways.”

The new routes are in addition to the services that were part of the initial codeshare agreement, which commenced in March 2009 and include flights between Sydney and Brisbane, Sydney and Cairns, Sydney and Adelaide, and Melbourne and Adelaide, as well as Sydney to Auckland in New Zealand.

Aside from the codeshare expansion, Etihad recently secured 14 additional weekly flight frequencies from its Abu Dhabi home-base to Australia.

Within the new flight allocation, which is available from March 2011, seven flights can be operated to any gateway in Australia. This includes Etihad’s current destinations of Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

A further seven weekly flights were granted on the condition that the operation also flies via or onto a regional airport.

Cabin and Inflight Entertainment improvements for Qantas Boeing 747 and Airbus A380 fleet

Qantas announced today it would invest $400 million to upgrade seats and inflight entertainment on nine Boeing 747-400 aircraft, and reconfigure its Airbus A380 fleet to meet the changing demands of the airline’s international customers.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer, Mr Alan Joyce, said the changes would provide all long haul customers with a leading edge and consistent inflight experience and ensure the airline was best placed to meet forecast changes in premium cabin demand.

“The major upgrade will give all our long haul customers access to our award winning seats and inflight entertainment Qantas offers on its flagship aircraft, the A380,” Mr Joyce said.

“Customer feedback on the Qantas A380 experience is overwhelmingly positive, and this experience, including the fully flat Skybed in Business, the all-new Economy seat and the inflight entertainment system will be available to customers travelling on Qantas B747-400 services.”

“We are committed to investing in premium customer product and service – to meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of our customers, maximise yields and generate revenue and investor returns.”

Mr Joyce said Qantas would always be a premium airline committed to offering a premium experience, and First Class would remain available on A380 services where demand existed.

“Maintaining a First offering on flagship routes is essential for Qantas as a premium airline. It is vital that we align this offering with forecast demand which is expected to be relatively slow compared to Business, Premium Economy and Economy,” he said.

“Our 14 Airbus A380 First suites will be offered on twelve aircraft and on daily services from Sydney and Melbourne to London via Singapore and Los Angeles.”

Mr Joyce said the changes were being made to respond to shifting travel trends across the globe.

“While some travel markets are recovering from the economic crisis, our assessment of longer term travel trends, which pre-dates the economic crisis, shows that international premium travel demand is changing,” Mr Joyce said.

“Just as Qantas was quick to respond to the downturn, we are now ensuring we are best placed to take advantage of the recovery and continue to invest in fleet, product and service.

“These changes will ensure we remain competitive in terms of aircraft configuration, product and service and that we are better able to ensure capacity is more closely aligned with demand.

“They will also add the equivalent capacity of more than three Boeing 747-400s, ensuring we can support future growth while reducing the need to purchase additional aircraft.

“The split A380 fleet will give Qantas greater flexibility to schedule the right aircraft, and the right configuration, on the right route, based on market demand.”

Details of the changes:

Boeing 747-400
* nine B747-400 will be upgraded and fitted with Qantas’ A380 standard seats and inflight product, including a fully flat Skybed sleeper seat in Business, an award-winning Marc Newson designed and Recaro manufactured seat in Economy and state-of-the-art on-demand Panasonic inflight entertainment in all classes
* First class cabins will be removed and Business seats installed in their place
* the three-class configuration will offer 359 seats (58 Business, 36 Premium Economy and 265 Economy), an increase of 52 seats overall

Airbus A380
* 12 A380s will continue to fly with a four-class configuration, including First class, but be refitted to reduce Business seating and increase Premium Economy and Economy seating
* the remaining eight aircraft will be delivered from 2012 in a three-class configuration and with no First cabin
* A380 seat numbers are to be confirmed subject to discussions with Airbus and suppliers

The upgrade and reconfiguration program will commence at the end of 2011 and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2013. It will be funded through the combination of operating cash flows and pre-existing debt facilities. The majority of capital expenditure will take place in 2012.