Qantas grows to meet Asia-Pacific demand

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Qantas will offer summer flights to Bali for a second year in a row, part of demand-led capacity increases across the Asia-Pacific region – including Singapore, the Philippines and New Zealand. The changes are made possible by reductions in domestic capacity, particularly in some regional resources markets, and efficient aircraft utilisation, which has freed up flying time within Qantas’ Boeing 737 fleet. Southeast Asia Qantas’ seasonal Bali flights will operate between Sydney and Denpasar five times a week from 14 December 2016 to 5 February 2017 – giving travellers headed to one of Australia’s favourite destinations a premium travel option and complementing Jetstar’s extensive network into the Indonesian island. Other seasonal capacity increases to Southeast Asia include:

• Flights between Perth and Singapore will go from 10 to 14 per week between 12 December and 6 February.
• Flights between Sydney and Manila will go from five to six per week between 15 December and 19 January.

New Zealand Qantas will increase capacity to Christchurch to support growing trans-Tasman demand and better link New Zealand to the Qantas Group’s broader global network:

• Flights between Brisbane and Christchurch services will grow from three per week to daily from 30 October, timed to connect with Qantas’ Asian and US network via Brisbane.
• A new daily Melbourne-Christchurch service will begin from 4 December, timed to connect with onward flights to Dubai, London and a wide range of European destinations.

Papua New Guinea Qantas’ Papua New Guinea flights will shift from Cairns-Port Moresby to Brisbane-Port Moresby from 30 October, in order to better serve the business market. The Brisbane-Port Moresby route will operate daily, using a B737 rather than the 74-seat Bombardier Q400 that currently operates twice-daily out of Cairns. Qantas and Air Niugini have agreed to continue codesharing across all Australia-PNG routes. Domestic The 174-seat B737 aircraft scheduled to operate the extra international flights will be re-deployed from the Qantas Domestic fleet, as Qantas uses two-class, 110-seat B717 aircraft to match capacity with lower demand on the Adelaide-Brisbane, Brisbane-Townsville and Brisbane-Mt Isa routes. Qantas’ B717 fleet will also be used to operate a new seasonal Melbourne-Maroochydore service over December and January. Tickets for most routes are now on sale, with the new Port Moresby service to follow in coming weeks. All services are subject to the relevant government and regulatory approvals.

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