It seems that soft demand is impacting Qantas, with it choosing to suspend a route to China, whilst boosting other coverage in the Asia region.
Sydney-Shanghai suspended
From 28 July 2024, flights to Shanghai will be suspended due to low demand. The airline resumed its Sydney-Shanghai service in October last year after a pause during COVID.
The airline hasn’t ruled out a return to Shanghai but will monitor demand.
For those who had direct flights, you can travel with Qantas to connect in Hong Kong and onward with its partners.
New route from Brisbane to Manila
Brisbane to Manila will open up service from 28 October 2024. This route will operate four days per week with Airbus A330, marking the first time the airline has flown between the two cities in over 10 years. It will supplement the existing daily service between Sydney and Manila.
Capacity increases to Singapore and India
Qantas will increase flying to Singapore by around 10 per cent, offering more than 2,500 additional seats per week between Australia and the Lion City.
- Sydney to Singapore will increase from 14 to 17 return flights per week from 11 December 2024.
- Brisbane to Singapore will increase from seven to nine return flights per week from 27 October 2024, timed to improve connectivity with Qantas’ daily service from Singapore to London, reducing overall travel time to Heathrow by around four hours.
Flights from Sydney to Bengaluru will also increase from five per week to daily to cater for strong demand over the peak holiday season. The extra flights will operate between mid-December 2024 and late March 2025, adding over 12,000 seats between the two cities over the four-month period.
In Quotes
Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace said:
“We’re always looking to ensure that we have the right aircraft, on the right routes and at the right time of year to best meet the needs of our customers.
“Since COVID, the demand for travel between Australia and China has not recovered as strongly as expected. In some months, our flights to and from Shanghai have been operating around half full.
“That’s why we’ve decided to suspend this route and boost flying to other popular destinations with a new route from Brisbane to Manila and additional flights to Singapore and Bengaluru. This will create more choice for our corporate and leisure customers and make it even easier for them to access the places they need to travel to in Asia.
“We’ll continue to maintain a presence in China through our partners and our existing flights to Hong Kong and look to return to Shanghai in the future.”
Balancing the network with demand
It’s always a tough thing for an airline when it comes to network management, but ensuring a route is viable is important – in terms of it can pay for itself and the deployment of a crew, from making adequate yield per seat and if more money can be made elsewhere.
For Qantas, that decision is to pull away from China for now and let its partners do the heavy lift out of Hong Kong, whilst that demand is soft – and redeploy the aircraft onto other more profitable duties.
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