Air Australia (Strategic Airlines) BNE/HNL, MEL/HNL BNE/MEL

[D Chan]

have to say that Strategic's strategy is both confused and convoluted. For example, the Port Hedland to Bali route, dropping of Townsville flights - and now they're trying HNL. That suggests to me that they are unclear about their strategy. They've got these two routes wrong before and I would not be surprised if they enjoy limited success with HNL. On paper competing with Qantas and Haiwaiian might sound like a good idea but HNL is a leisure destination for richer people unlike the Phukets and Balis of the world. How much of the premium market could they capture?

[lloyd fox]

D Chan have you mentioned the routes they have GOT right.

They are a reasonably new airline searching for their niche and time will tell whether they have got it right.
HNL will be a good success out of BNE maybe not so much out of MEL,not sure about that.The AUD is good for that at the moment.

The airline is purely selecting the 2nd and 3rd largest cities in Australia as their 2 bases which have been devoid of flights as Qantas are a Sydney eccentric carrier.

Cheers

[Andrew Johnson]

with only 10 nonstops MEL/USA (MEL/LAX) currently, some people might fly MEL/HNL & then pick up a domestic ticket to get to mainland USA

[Andrew Johnson]

other airlines reacting already.

Just got news of new QF/FJ fares to HNL & LAX from all over Australia, which are embargoed from sale til Mon.

Not as cheap as VC, but not much in it, but VC fares should be compared to JQ not QF/FJ.

Guess they figure people might pay a little extra for full service, 23kg checked baggage & Qantas ff points.

Guess QF/FJ will play with inventory once they see on Monday what VC is throwing into marketplace numbers/fares wise, ie how many $499/$599 one way fares.

[Andrew Johnson]

Originally Posted by D Chan

have to say that Strategic's strategy is both confused and convoluted. For example, the Port Hedland to Bali route, dropping of Townsville flights - and now they're trying HNL. That suggests to me that they are unclear about their strategy. They've got these two routes wrong before and I would not be surprised if they enjoy limited success with HNL. On paper competing with Qantas and Haiwaiian might sound like a good idea but HNL is a leisure destination for richer people unlike the Phukets and Balis of the world. How much of the premium market could they capture?

People from BNE & MEL don't want to fly via SYD to get to HNL. Most would rather fly via AKL or NAN, so nonstops at right price. The question is how much above the $998 ($499 each way BNE/HNL/BNE) + luggage + meals can they get.

You'd have to wonder if they talked to someone about onward flights. For example, Boyd casinos I think it is, has almost daily HNL/LAS/HNL charter services using 757's/DC10's, which is aimed at feeding their LAS casinos. With U.S. economy in the toilet, they might be using 757's instead of the DC10, but would probably welcome some feed to help fill these aircraft.

Think the Omni DC10's they use have about 350 seats in 2 classes & the 757's have about 200 seats in 2 classes.

[Justin L]

Alaska Airlines have a few routes out of HNL which would open up some interesting new one-stop connections to US west coast ports and maybe compete with Hawaiian?

Alaskan have their tie-ups with QF/AA/DL, but still maybe an interesting choice at opening up niche markets?

[Andrew Johnson]

Don't think VC's new strategy would allow interlining, but no reason why passengers couldn't book on AS or Westjet to YVR.

In these cases, passengers would be best to stopover in HNL in both directions for a night or 2. If worked out cheaper than other routes (note there are no nonstops BNE or MEL/SFO-SEA-YVR) people would do it.

[Justin L]

Agreed Andrew. Just a thought I had.

And come to think of it, HKT and HNL could be better marketed as destinations in their own right, like DPS, for even long weekend trips - rather than stopovers on the way to somewhere. They don't connect out of HKT or DPS anyway.

Come to think of it, DPS, HKT and HNL are all genuine leisure destinations - so that could be their angle and selling point. If passengers then take the advantage of booking on other carriers beyond those points to extend their trip - then great also.

And depending on VC's timing of their MEL-BNE flights, MEL-BNE-HNL may be a great alternative to MEL-SYD-HNL on QF or JQ.

[Andrew Johnson]

+ strong rumour that QF will drop SYD/HNL in favour of JQ in big annnoucement 24AUG. Wonder what management at QF/JQ think about VC's announcement.

My bet is that they wil dump some seats MEL & BNE/SYD/HNL to same fare as VC's or lower + throw in something like Qantas frequent flyer points/ff programme membership.

Incidentally, you can use QF points to get from 4 different Hawaiian islands to mainland USA. Wonder if QF would have a quiet world to AA about making those ff seats "disappear" very quickly ?

[James Smith]

Interesting 35 minute turnaround in Melbourne and the same scheduled flight time from Brisbane and Melbourne to Honolulu.