Emirates' Tasman profit climbs 50pc

[Gerald A]

Emirates airline increased its profits on the Tasman by more than 50 per cent to $26.2 million, according to accounts just filed with the Companies Office.


The Dubai-based airline flies to Auckland and Christchurch as an add-on to its long-haul services to several eastern Australian cities.

The numbers are for the year to March 31, and do not include the subsequent sharp rise in fuel costs that king-hit Air New Zealand results for the year to June 30.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4728538a34.html

[Arthur T]

Seems service quality matters, with their luxary inflight service and reasonable time would attract more and more business and first class passengers to Emirates from Qantas or Air New Zealand.

Meanwhile I am just worried when EK rolls out their A380 service from Sydney to Auckland, whilst QF just using their old 747-400, even -300s would be competitve against EK's showers and bars on A380 First and Business class and they are selling just $1300 for first and around the same as QF for Business.

(Frankly, even QF uses A380 on SYD - AKL would still not attractive to F/J Commuters as QF's A380s don't have showers, bars and even fully private suites, no matter that is a single or double suites.)

I would advise QF to withdraw SYD - AKL next year with JetStar's A320/330 with StarClass instead, at comparable times when EK operates.
This sounds improving competitiveness for QF. Otherwise, it would be time for QF to slash the price for their F/J seats soon.

[Michael Morrison]

Originally Posted by Arthur T

(Frankly, even QF uses A380 on SYD - AKL would still not attractive to F/J Commuters as QF's A380s don't have showers, bars and even fully private suites, no matter that is a single or double suites.).

I seriosuly doubt people will choose to fly Emirates first class on a 2.5 hour flight to have a shower. QF, despite their tatty planes, can still command a higher yield across the tasman - evenr against someone like Air NZ who offer a better product. Therefore I think it is more of the same across the ditch and Jetstar is only being introduced so QF don't have to lower their base prices to much and can compete on the bargain basement crowd against NZ & DJ.

[Marty H]

Originally Posted by Arthur T

Seems service quality matters, with their luxary inflight service and reasonable time would attract more and more business and first class passengers to Emirates from Qantas or Air New Zealand.

Meanwhile I am just worried when EK rolls out their A380 service from Sydney to Auckland, whilst QF just using their old 747-400, even -300s would be competitve against EK's showers and bars on A380 First and Business class and they are selling just $1300 for first and around the same as QF for Business.

(Frankly, even QF uses A380 on SYD - AKL would still not attractive to F/J Commuters as QF's A380s don't have showers, bars and even fully private suites, no matter that is a single or double suites.)

I would advise QF to withdraw SYD - AKL next year with JetStar's A320/330 with StarClass instead, at comparable times when EK operates.
This sounds improving competitiveness for QF. Otherwise, it would be time for QF to slash the price for their F/J seats soon.

My brother-in-law was looking at Business class from MEL-AKL in April next year and QF are about $700 more than EK, not sure what Air NZ price is though.

QF were $1100+ one way compared to EK $800 one way that was inc taxes.

[Will T]

Originally Posted by Arthur T

Seems service quality matters

I'd be surprised if 'service quality' alone delivered those results, Arthur. Emirates and other fifth freedom carriers running across the Tasman have the ability to price over the marginal cost of providing those additional Tasman services, rather than over the fully-allocated costs that Qantas, Air NZ, and Virgin Blue have to wear. This gives them a substantial ability to out-discount the full-service (and potentially the low cost) players, and is basically capacity dumping on the premise of offsetting some of their fixed costs, rather than letting their aircraft sit idle and unproductive on the ramp at Sydney. This was obviously a major argument put forward by Qantas and Air NZ during their merger and TNA campaigns, and remains valid in my opinion, nothwithstanding the relatively small scale of the operation.

[Mike W]

It's not as if this is new either. For years the likes of LAN, Thai, Aerolineas, (even SQ I think),etc have been 'tacking' on Tasman services and it hasn't been too threatening even though the pricing at times has been sharp. It seems EK's step up in quality coupled with their pricing policy has created the increased threat to the locals.

I'm in two minds on this one;

A: From a consumers perspective, great. Competition is generally good for consumers and sometimes stimulates overall business as well which I believe to be case here to some extent.

B: It's not quite a level playing field for the domiciled Australasian carriers as Will positioned above and not to mention the other argued issues around Emirates' tax and fuel positions. But then, that's another story.

[Adam T]

I've flown SYD > AKL a few times this year and have always chosen the EK flight as opposed to QF because they offer something different. The service in economy class is much better than the the QF economy service and the flight is much cheaper than QF.

[Sam Chui]

Gotta agree with Michael. I can't find the A$1300 First Class SYD-NZ fare...I thinK EK increase the fare to $2000 lately? (also EK incresed fare to BKK/Europe in Business/First consideably than 1 year ago)

[Jon Harris]

The current First Class fare on EK SYD-AKL-SYD booked in the discounted "A" class for a 3 month ticket is quoting AUD 2028.00 plus taxes AUD 127.72 total AUD 2155.72.

Sam is correct, EK increased their fares over the past 12 months about 3 times with an average increase of 12% each time...to UK/Europe they are no longer cheap in their P+J fares - particulalry the non-stop A345. EK has recently re-introduced discounted corporate fares in First and Business booked in A and C class to Europe to more realistic levels.