Qantas CEO Talks Up Qantas!

[Brad Myer]

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce says business travellers are returning to the airline and he predicts the group's mainline operations will regain their crown as the most profitable within a year to 18 months.

Mr Joyce said domestic yields topped year-ago figures for the first time in December and international yields followed suit in February.
The Qantas figures come as new International Air transport Association figures show that international global airline traffic is now just 1.4 per cent below pre-recession levels and IATA predicts it will be above that within two to three months. The improvement is allowing airlines and their alliances to increase some of the artificially low fares seen last year.

Mr Joyce said two-for-one sales introduced early last year to stimulate demand had worked their way through the system and the airline was now seeing normal sales, with the business market recovering in line with expectations.

He said Qantas had kept its 80 per cent share of the business market through the global financial crisis and still had 600 managed corporate accounts.

But the corporate market shrank as business people travelled less and downgraded to economy. As a result, Qantas's yield premium against Virgin fell from 30 to 40 per cent before the downturn to about 15 per cent in the first half.

"And what we're seeing now is that, in our intakes, that's been restored and I've absolute confidence that the most profitable business domestically, the way this is returning, within the next year to 18 months, will be Qantas mainline," he said.

Qantas has announced that it will boost its mainline domestic capacity by 3 per cent this year and it is looking at growth opportunities for its QantasLink regional operations.

But the international business is looking more problematic and Mr Joyce said it was still not a case of one speed fits all.

He said the replacement of Boeing 747s with bigger 450-seat A380s, six of which are in service with five more arriving in the next financial year, would add capacity on London and Los Angeles routes.

Qantas had upgraded its services to Japan with a Boeing 747-400, and the Chinese market was also improving.

"China, I think, is a great opportunity for the group," he said. "And I think Hong Kong is also in that category."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/busi...-1225849636663

[Ash W]

They are going to have 12 A380's in the 450 seat config. Then from 2012 onwards will introduce the 3 class A380's on other routes.

[Michael Morrison]

Interesesting their yield premium over Virgin has dropped so much.

[Harry G]

DJ are very much underestimated at present......... the shuffling at the top level will greatly impact QF ........ note mention made of corporate accounts....
my guess would be that QF will have to lift its image firstly at domestic level as they have taken a battering of late - particularly with the QF push of older c/crew.... with DJ going after the business market, I am sure there will be some interesting moves.......
I would also think that with TT now appearing to be getting their act together, JQ will have to smarten themselves up also......
GFC may be looking like it is subsiding but I would suggest the battle for the business buck has just begun! and I would think the addage about QF being the sentimental "old" favourite will fly out the door at 100mph particularly with the likes of Borgetti now heading up DJ..