Demand for Asia prompts Qantas to cut back flights to US

Demand for Asia prompts Qantas to cut back flightto US

QANTAS will trim back its US services next year and send bigger planes to Asia in response to changing demand from passengers wishing to stretch their travel dollar further.

Days after welcoming joint venture partner American Airlines Down Under, Qantas has announced it will reduce Sydney-Los Angeles services from ten to seven a week from April 2016.

The cutback will be partially offset by an extra weekly flight to Dallas-Fort Worth, where Qantas is seeing “strong demand”.

At the same time, a Boeing 747 will replace A330s on three services a week to Hong Kong, providing about 200 extra seats each week.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the growth was “all about responding to strong demand we’re seeing in a wide range of Asian markets”.

“For the past 18 months, we’ve been taking a more dynamic, agile approach across our

international network and this is another example of that strategy,” said Mr Joyce.

“We’re using our fleet more efficiently to give customers a greater choice of flights and more seats into Asia, at the same time as we meet demand for travel to North America in partnership with American Airlines.”

Qantas is also increasing capacity on Singapore flights, and operating a seasonal service to Bali in December and January.

The airline confirmed today its routes to and from Asia had been the biggest contributors to international revenue growth so far in 2015-16.

In contrast, demand for US travel is expected to flatten next year in response to the weaker dollar.

Despite the outlook, Qantas and American Airlines will still fly twice daily between Sydney and LA, and Qantas will also operate six services a week to San Francisco from late December.

Flights to Dallas-Fort Worth will increase from six a week to daily from April 2016 in the Qantas A380.

“We’re still seeing strong demand on US routes, but capacity growth in the market will trend down from about 9 per cent now, to about six per cent in 2015-16 as a whole,” Mr Joyce said.

“The lower dollar seems to have more of a positive effect on demand into Australia than a dampening effect on travel demand out of the country.

“Australians tend to compensate for a weaker currency by simply spending less when they are away, rather than changing their destination altogether.”