Qantas to Boost Japan capacity

[Stefan Perkas]

Evening all,

From travel Today

Qantas will increase capacity to Japan from July with the deployment of a two-class Boeing 747-400 on selected flights between Sydney and Tokyo.
The current daily service from Qantas uses a two-class Airbus A330-300 but from July 5, six of these flights will be operated with a 747-400. Chief executive Alan Joyce said the capacity increase comes on the back of increased demand to Japan.

Capacity will increase by 115 seats per flight, including 26 business class seats.

From July 5

QF21 Dep SYD 2145 Arr NRT 0630 B744 (SUN-TUES, THUR-SAT)
QF21 Dep SYD 2140 Arr NRT 0640 A332 (Wednesday Only)

QF 22 DEP NRT 2030 Arr SYD 0700 B744 (SUN-WED, FRI-SAT)
QF 22 Dep NRT 2030 Arr SYD 0720 A332 (Thursday's Only)

[Brian Wilkes]

Wounder if JAL will respond, if not with a 744 with a 77W?

[Jarden S]

That's a long layover in NRT nearly a whole day for QF21

[Will H]

Originally Posted by Jarden S

That's a long layover in NRT nearly a whole day for QF21

The route is catered for business flyers. Have a full day's work in Tokyo (or a full day to arrive from elsewhere in North Asia) and then fly home in biz bed. If it was a day flight, I would expect biz wouldn't sell too well.

Originally Posted by Brian Wilkes

Wounder if JAL will respond, if not with a 744 with a 77W?

Nope. Yesterday JAL said it will not be making any changes to its Australian service, both at SYD and BNE.

If anything, the going thought was JAL might reduce or pull out of Australia.


I wonder, however, if the change is more driven by a want to use the more agile A330-300 elsewhere on the network and Qantas knows it can easily fill more leisure seats (Joyce said the demand was from VFR traffic). Anyone know any plans for the A333?

[Craig Sandford]

Originally Posted by Will H

The route is catered for business flyers. Have a full day's work in Tokyo (or a full day to arrive from elsewhere in North Asia) and then fly home in biz bed. If it was a day flight, I would expect biz wouldn't sell too well.

Actually, as a semi-regular biz traveller to Tokyo, I've found the lack of a day flight to be more frustrating. I normally plan to leave our office at 3:30pm in order to catch the evening flight. The combination of the distance Narita is from Central Tokyo and the traffic conditions from 5:00 pm onwards mean I really can't risk catching a limousine bus from a nearby hotel (worst trip was 4.5 hours for the 80 odd kms), so it is normally a taxi to Tokyo station, queue up to buy a ticket, and then on the Narita Express.

My productivity the next day in AUS isn't fantastic, as I don't sleep well on planes.

I'd much rather finish my day in the office, catch a JR train in the late evening to Narita, and stay in a hotel near the airport. I can then work on the plane during the day if I needed to.

I know I'm probably in the minority, but if a day flight existed, I would support it.

[Michael Morrison]

Originally Posted by Will H

. Anyone know any plans for the A333?

Perhaps a shuffle around with a 332 so a 332 can ops AKL-LAX?

[Jarden S]

I thought Qantas was to use 330 on PER-NRT and BNE,SYD-MNL and retiring the 763's so maybe thats where the 330 comes from to do it.

[Tim C]

Would be great to get the 333 back on the PER-NRT route. The 767 is a good old workhorse just cant cut it for a 10 hour sector in why.