Qantas set to announce BNE to San Fran and Chicago

[MarkR]

If the JV with AA is signed off, news emerged today that Qantas intends to announce that they will start Brisbane to San Fran and Brisbane to chicago routes

"As part of the case put to the DOT, Qantas and American flagged an intention to launch several new routes within the first two years of the proposed joint business," Qantas said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Qantas expects to announce details of two new routes - Brisbane-Chicago and Brisbane-San Francisco - once final approval is received."

Regulators in Australia and New Zealand have already approved the plan.

Delta and Virgin Australia, and United and Air New Zealand have similar joint businesses, but US regulators in 2016 denied a similar request from Qantas and American to cooperate."

https://thewest.com.au/business/mark...s-ng-s-1947783

[James Smith]

Another release, this one from Airline Ratings published yesterday, with a quote from Alan Joyce obtained at the recent IATA conference in Seoul and before the JV was approved. A few variations in the new routes that QANTAS/AA may commence.

Joyce said the partners would probably add three trans-Pacific routes if the alliance was approved.

He said Qantas already had the aircraft to be able to operate the new routes.

“We’ll probably do a couple, American Airlines one,’’ he said. “We’ve said before it possibly will be Brisbane to Chicago, Brisbane to Seattle or Brisbane to Dallas as a new route.

“We have a number of ideas of very good routes into the US and expansion if it’s approved.

Source: https://www.airlineratings.com/news/...test_headlines

[James Smith]

The JV has received tentative approval.

https://australianaviation.com.au/20...s-american-jv/

[lloyd fox]

Announcement at 1pm today .

[James Smith]

The QANTAS media release:

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/me...san-francisco/

Summary: BNE - ORD 4 pw and BNE - SFO 3 pw both with 789s from late April, 2020.

[James Smith]

My first reaction from reading the news release was where would QANTAS source the two additional 789s to operate these new services, knowing that SYD - SFO will take two aircraft and the third late 2019 delivery will be put onto MEL - HKG from 4 November, 2019. Looking further into the announcement it states that BNE - LAX will be daily, not 10 pw, so the 3 weekly QF55/56 aircraft will be redeployed to BNE - SFO.

Therefore, only one additional 789 is required which could be sourced from an early delivery of one of the 2020 aircraft, I don't know the expected delivery dates of the last three 789s due in 2020, or by the redeployment of an 789 from either of the HKG services from SYD or MEL. Is a year round A380 service to HKG a possibility or will the two daily services from SYD remain?

If there is a 789 delivery due in March/April, 2020 and it is used for ORD then there will only be two 789s for 744 replacement which will not be enough to operate to JNB and SCL, let alone HND as well. Apparently, QANTAS is looking to operate an A380 to HND if they can get approval from the airport, which could be very difficult operationally from what I've read.

Will further 789s be ordered and/or a couple of 744s kept in service into 2020 to operate one service and also achieve 50 years of continuous 744 service? That would be a monumental milestone for QANTAS.

[lloyd fox]

James it will come off of HKG as the 789 put on that run was always only temporary due to delay in getting the QF/AA JV approved.. 4 Aircraft to be based at BNE will do all these runs to LAX,ORD,SFO.

[MarkR]

Originally Posted by James Smith

Looking further into the announcement it states that BRI - LAX will be daily, not 10 pw, so the 3 weekly QF55/56 aircraft will be redeployed to BRI - SFO..

Huh, Italy to San Francisco LOL. It’s confusing when the wrong airport codes are used.

[James Smith]

Sorry about that, Mark. Yes it is very confusing and I am usually very careful. I looked up all the overseas airport codes but just used BRI without a second thought. The incorrect codes have been amended.

[James Smith]

The flight times and commencing dates have been published for the new QANTAS Brisbane to US routes:

Brisbane – Chicago O’Hare eff 20APR20 4 weekly 787-9
QF085 BNE1530 – 1640ORD 789 x247
QF086 ORD2150 – 0610+2BNE 789 x247

Brisbane – San Francisco eff 09FEB20 3 weekly 787-9 (Following schedule effective 09FEB20 – 05MAR20)
QF059 BNE2035 – 1515SFO 789 247
QF060 SFO2215 – 0600+2BNE 789 247

Source: Routes Online

In addition, from 29 March, 2020 QF29/30 MEL - HKG - MEL will revert to A330s from 787-9s while QF127/128 SYD - HKG - SYD will revert to 787-9s from A380s.