Melbourne Tullamarine Airport

Qantas in a changing world: quantifies refocused international strategy and limits capital exposure

Qantas' withdrawal from a series of international routes promises the single largest benefit to its loss-making international division, delivering AUD100-120 million (USD101-122 million) in annual benefits, with the majority to be realised in FY2013. But with the international division reporting a loss of AUD216 million (USD219 million) in FY2012, Qantas will continue to operate a number of unprofitable routes, primarily to Europe and Asia.

Qantas expects to reduce those losses through the reconfiguration of its Boeing 747-400 and A380 fleets, which when complete towards the second half of FY2014 will deliver AUD70-90 million (USD71-91 million) of benefits annually. Qantas previously put those retrofit changes at a cost of AUD400 million (USD406 million). They include reconfiguring nine 747-400s to have no first class while 12 A380s have a reduced number of business class seats but more economy and premium economy seats.

Royal Brunei plans long-haul product upgrades while refocusing short-haul to compete against LCCs

Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) aims to significantly improve its long-haul product next year following the introduction of its Boeing 787 fleet as part of a new strategy to focus on brand in the long-haul market and price in the short-haul market, where it faces increasing competition from LCCs. The long-haul product enhancements will include 18 lie-flat business class seats on the 787s, which will be placed by early 2014 on the carrier’s London, Dubai and Melbourne routes as well as potentially to Hong Kong and Shanghai.

RBA is now slated to receive its first of five 787s in Aug-2013, as CAPA first reported in Nov-2011. The carrier will be the first in Southeast Asia to receive the 787. RBA deputy chairman Dermot Mannion said on the sidelines of the CAPA Airlines in Transition CEO Summit last week that the carrier plans to place into service three 787s by the end of 2013 with the final two being delivered in 1Q2014.

Melbourne and Sydney airports wage PR wars with strategic partnerships

The recent history of Australia's two main airports – Melbourne and Sydney – has been one of Melbourne being on the offensive to capture traffic that went to Sydney by default while Sydney sat back, even as its growth lagged that of its competitor. But that is no more. A revitalised Sydney airport, with the backing of a new government, is out to hold its place. That was evident at last week's annual Routes Asia forum where both Melbourne and Sydney took the opportunity to announce respective strategic partnerships to drum up support.

Australian aviation market shows signs of slowdown just as airlines were enjoying yield premiums

There are now clear signs the Australian aviation market is entering a light slowdown, with carriers adding capacity ahead of demand while airfares decline marginally. This will affect the region's carriers differently and they should all fare better than counterparts elsewhere in the world; notably, the market in Australia is still growing, but not as fast. Most exposed are Qantas mainline and Tiger Airways Australia. The former has been slowly losing some corporate business to Virgin Australia and competes with a higher cost base.

Tiger is suffering from group-wide over-capacity and would not be able to redeploy capacity as readily. Unlike Tiger, Jetstar has a healthy and rapidly growing pan-Asian network that can absorb any surplus capacity and at a higher margin even than in Australia. Virgin Australia is seeing yield growth from its transition to a business carrier, growth that should overcome any weakness in the more leisure-exposed areas of its business.

AirAsia X and Scoot help make Sydney Australia's hub for low-cost long-haul carriers

The inaugural AirAsia X flight arriving into Sydney on 02-Apr-2012 is ushering in the era of low-cost, long-haul carriers at Australia's largest airport, which is poised to take the title of offering the most service from low-cost long-haul carriers between Australia and Asia. While Jetstar already links Sydney to long-haul destinations and previous carriers like Viva Macau tried, this new wave is of carriers going beyond point-to-point traffic to offer connections out of large Asian hubs.

AirAsia X will be followed by Scoot, and the presence of a Singapore low-cost long-haul carrier in Sydney makes it likely that Jetstar too will enter the Sydney-Singapore market, although parent company Qantas will have to accept that corporate routes previously in its exclusive domain must now be shared if it wants to remain relevant in a market with increasingly diversifying traffic.

The sudden influx of long-haul LCCs can be attributed to competitive responses but also the new government in New South Wales that is eager to better promote Sydney Airport.

Royal Brunei settles in for medium term with expanded Australian services

Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) this month is increasing capacity to Melbourne and adjusting the schedule there in a bid to generate scale and improved financial performance. The government-owned carrier is settling into its restructured route network that in mid-2011 saw many loss-making long-haul routes eliminated, which RBA deputy chairman Dermot Mannion says is helping create financial stability as costs decrease and cash flow improves. The carrier will continue to monitor its regional network but is unlikely to open new destinations, preferring instead to add capacity when opportunities arise.

The restructure left RBA with significant excess capacity on its widebody Boeing 777 fleet but RBA later this year will return two of its six leased 777s and retain the rest until 787s arrive in late 2013. RBA expects the aircraft, combined with a new interior and redevelopments at Bandar Seri Begawan Brunei International Airport, will give the carrier a boost after high fuel prices and increased competition made it undertake the restructure and staff retrenchment.