Anger over flight schedule changes

[Kain C]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...17/2572700.htm

Surely an early morning ERJ HBA-SYD and late evening ERJ SYD-HBA would make plenty of money full of high yield business passengers without needing to deep discount the rear as the aircraft is so small. I wonder how long it will be before this situation is changed?

[Marty H]

Both airlines wouldnt have canned it if that was the case Kain clearly it is not full of 'high yeild' business travellers, they still have the option of going via MEL.

HBA isnt exactly the 'business hub' of Australia.

[Ryan K]

From a traveller's point of view, the current situation seems ridiculous to me. It's impossible to get from HBA to SYD early in the morning for business or connecting flights. An overnight stay in SYD is now required for a lot of people. It seems ridiculus that the Qantas Group now have their first JQ service and their QF service departing within an hour of each other.

[Gareth U]

From my own experience of operating QFLink 717 flights ex-HBA the loads during Winter on the 0600 flight were not so good. Even in Summer the early flight ex-HBA was the least popular.

The first SYD-HBA flight had a VERY large proportion of connectors, from memory. I would hazard a guess that these people can connect via Melbourne to most places.

Conversely, the evening SYD-HBA was the least popular of the three daily flights.

HBA isnt exactly the 'business hub' of Australia.

Marty, patrons of the early flights from both MEL and SYD to HBA were mostly 'suits', in my experience. As were the last flights out of HBA.

Despite the above I do think that at least once carrier should be able to manage such a service, even if not daily.

[Marty H]

Originally Posted by Gareth U

Despite the above I do think that at least once carrier should be able to manage such a service, even if not daily.

Possible I guess VB could possibly get maybe a MON/WED/FRI E170 onto it, but if both JQ and DJ have pulled out of the time slot to me that says not well patronised for either airline.

[Ryan K]

JQ's reason for pulling out of that time slot was due to the closure of its Hobart base and therefore no aircraft overnighting in HBA.

[Marty H]

Marty, please do not quote the entire post directly above yours, it is not necessary -Mod


Same problem DJ would have in o/nighting an E170 in HBA for a possible three time a week flight.

[Kain C]

Both airlines wouldnt have canned it if that was the case Kain clearly it is not full of 'high yeild' business travellers

Before the changes, with a DJ737 and JQ320 departing together first thing that was 360 seats, so there may not have been 360 high yield passengers per day, but there would have been at least 20 or 30. So if DJ operated a 78 seat E170, then it would be 1/3 to 1/2 full of high yield passengers [as they would have the monopoly], with minimal cheap fares needing to be sold, hence the profit!

[Marty H]

Marty, please do not quote the entire post directly above yours, it is not necessary -Mod

So how do you propose that VB get a E170 and crew to o/night in HBA???

[Kain C]

Well, unless they cut some other service (which would then have the other end complaining), then it will have to wait until they get another aircraft delivered. Then the new aircraft overnights in HBA. When is the next E170 due?

As for the crew, well if time between arriving from SYD the night before to departing for SYD in the morning is too short to be done by the one crew, then some sort of crew rotation whereby the arriving SYD-HBA crew do the next day HBA-CBR (also E170) and vice-versa will need to be arranged.

Then DJ will have to find some new services to operate to/from SYD so that the aircraft is kept busy all day. Could they maybe do 3x HBA-SYD with the E170, and leave just 1x 737, instead of 2x 737, freeing up a 737 sector to do an extra SYD-BNE-SYD or SYD-MEL-SYD or SYD-ADL-SYD or something?