QF increases Tasmania services

[Brad Myer]

Hi,

http://www.voxy.co.nz/business/qantas-increases-capacity-tasmania/5/129094

Cheers

[Rowan McKeever]

Good news for the Apple Isle :) Will be interesting to see the details of the Q400 services...

[Brad Myer]

QantasLink increases services and capacity to/from Canberra:

http://www.voxy.co.nz/business/qantas-boost-canberra-capacity/5/129102

[Rowan McKeever]

Can't say the ADL-CBR on Q400 is a surprise, but it's way overdue. Good to see some extra QLink work coming through anyway.

[Kain C]

Trying to make sense of the figures:

HBA-MEL extra 1036 seats per week is in total over both directions.
LST-MEL extra 694 seats per week is each direction, making 1388 extra seats total.

Schedules loaded, Q400 overnights in HBA instead of 73H!

MEL-HBA:

0700-0815 73H
1455-1610 73H
1810-1935 DH4

HBA-MEL:

0630-0755 DH4
0855-1010 73H
1650-1805 73H

[Ryan K]

While I welcome the extra seats, I can't understand QF's decision to overnight a Q400 in HBA. How will the business community and politicians react to this? They'll go to Virgin Australia with its new, stylish business class. The Q400 morning service won't even get into MEL until nearly 8am making some international connections more difficult.

[Kain C]

Indeed Ryan. It will be interesting to see the timing of the additional DJ HBA-MEL flight that is due to commence by September. QF group don't have many seats in the evening on MEL-HBA, 1550 is the last JQ flight and then 1810 DH4 most days during November. Add to that the DJ lounge opening by March 2013.

[Ryan K]

The cynic in me can see this as a long term plan to pull mainline out of HBA.... Hope I'm wrong.

[Kain C]

Well if that were to happen then the next sign will be the HBA-SYD QF flight. Now that it is isolated and not part of a MEL-HBA-SYD triangular route it could well be dropped midweek by winter next year.

[Gareth U]

I recall the once mighty schedules, operated by the 717s (three overnighting aircraft).

[Rowan McKeever]

Those were the days Gareth, weren't they. Better schedules for places like HBA, CBR etc... AND the 717s in this part of the world!

[Ryan K]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't one of the conditions of QF's takeover of Impulse be that all existing services to HBA were retained? That explains all the 717's that used to come here!

I still can't understand QF's decison to make the early morning business flight to MEL and the evening flight back to HBA a Q400 prop. The suits will be RUNNING over to Virgin Australia. Probably all part of QF's:rolleyes: "master plan".

[Kain C]

I'm surprised that the Q400 to HBA hasn't been more of an issue. Back in 2004 when JQ started, QF proposed running their two MEL-HBA 737 flights at exactly the same time as they will from October. After the outcry of no J seats out of HBA in the morning, the decision was reversed and the 737 stayed overnight in HBA. I guess this time there is DJ, so people will just jump ship, as opposed to 2004 when QF had the J monopoly.

Gareth, I remember those days. 717s to MEL at around 6 and 7 in the morning, with the SYD service somewhere in between, plus DJ to MEL and SYD too. Now just two jets and a Q400 overnighting instead of 5 jets. In fact, for a brief period when Kendall operated their CRJs there were 6 jets overnighting in HBA, but fewer seats than the 5 jets mentioned.

[Gareth U]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't one of the conditions of QF's takeover of Impulse be that all existing services to HBA were retained?

Correct. When AN/KD were still around there was WAY too much capacity. I recall working a HBA-MEL flight with 1 pax. We put her in the flight deck and ate many of the sixty beef burgundy pies with mash, gravy and veg that were loaded by the exceptional catering operation in HBA. It seems like a lifetime ago.

When AN collapsed the capacity was much better matched to demand.

There used to be six crews overnighting in HBA each night. It seemed that we spent more time in HBA than in our own home. The hotel gave us 50% off in the bar - good times!

[Rowan McKeever]

QantasLink increases services and capacity to/from Canberra:

http://www.voxy.co.nz/business/qantas-boost-canberra-capacity/5/129102

Call me an idiot but how does upgrading 3 return DH3s a week (Monday, Thursday & Friday) to DH4 (24 extra seats per flight) equate to 336 extra seats a week? I make 144... and yet it's in Qantas' own media statement??

[Kain C]

Only way I can get 336 is daily upgrade from DH3 TO DH4, giving 24*7*2 accounting for each direction. Don't know if that is the correct number of services though?

[Rowan McKeever]

Yeah same here... unless something changed recently it's been 4xDH4 and 5xDH3 a week for a couple of years. From their online schedules it changes to 7xDH4 and 2xDH3, so only 3 returns get the upgrade.