Qantas's next step, the private jet experience

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This was published 12 years ago

Qantas's next step, the private jet experience

By Sky report: Julietta Jameson
Luxury, thy name is SIA ... a first class suite on the Singapore A380.

Luxury, thy name is SIA ... a first class suite on the Singapore A380.

Levels of luxury to eclipse Singapore Airlines' A380? Pass the vintage French champagne.

CALL us spoilt but yes, that was Sky Report sitting in business, drinking the rare vintage rose Dom Perignon offered during Singapore Airlines' inaugural A380 flight out of Sydney not so many years ago.

Since then we've had several more opportunities to experience the luxury that is the SIA A380 business-class cabin. With its big, wide leather seats and real flat-bed experience, let's just say comfort, thy name is SIA.

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So you can imagine our delight to have heard Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce tell Bloomberg TV on August 19 that Qantas's planned Asian carrier will be aiming for comfort and luxury levels to eclipse SIA's in a bid to lure across some of their customers.

Though no launch date is announced and while the airline is still seeking financial partners in the new carrier, Joyce revealed a new Qantas Asia brand will be based out of Singapore or Malaysia and will be "a top premium product" designed to take on the top-performing south-east Asian airlines.

He added the airline's premium cabins would have a "private-jet feel" and would operate under a new identity, separate from those already under the Qantas banner.

Qantas aims to outdo Singapore's premium offering. The current first class seat on the Qantas A380 is above.

Qantas aims to outdo Singapore's premium offering. The current first class seat on the Qantas A380 is above.

Jetting into Japan

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In tandem with the above and an announcement to cut Europe flights, Qantas made clear its Asian focus by stating its intention to launch Jetstar Japan, a low-fare airline flying domestically within Japan.

Given that transport is generally super-efficient in Japan, here's hoping some of that rubs off on Jetstar Australia, which continues to set the social media world ablaze with complaints about cancelled and delayed flights. Not that any of Sky Report's recent Jetstar flights have been delayed or cancelled. In fact, our track record with them is perfect (knock on wood).

Jetstar Japan will link Australians flying into Tokyo with wider Japanese destinations and fares are expected to be an average of 40 per cent lower than current prices.

It's expected to start flying by the end of next year.

Mountain high

There's another new airline in the sky; Tibet Airlines had its inaugural flight recently, marking the launch of the only airline to be based in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

The Chinese-owned Tibet Airlines will fly between Beijing and Lhasa and it's hoped it will encourage increased tourism. In fact, China wants to have 15 million visitors a year to the Himalayan region by 2015.

No doubt that will engender mixed feelings, so for those on the horrified end of the scale, might we suggest getting there sooner rather than later.

There's not too much of a rush though. While Tibet Airlines plans to have 20 aircraft by 2015, it now has only one airbus A319.

US lightens up

So maybe they're catching on. One of the heavyweights of US travel has pinpointed draconian security measures at US airports as a factor in an astonishing 10-year downturn in travel to America.

"The decade following 9/11 has seen significant changes in the way Americans, and those who visit America, travel," says Roger Dow, president and CEO of the US Travel Association, commenting on the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.

"We must continue keeping travellers safe with the highest level of security but we must incorporate principles that improve facilitation and encourage travel."

At the top of his list for doing that is discretionary treatment of passengers. While that might send shivers down the spines of human rights and discrimination practitioners, Dow also presents some amazing data.

"While global long-haul travel grew 40 per cent from 2000 to 2010, overseas travel to the United States during this same timeframe rose just 2 per cent," he says.

"Despite more travellers worldwide, [the US] slice of the pie shrunk, with US market share of the global travel market dropping from 17 per cent in 2000 to 12.4 per cent in 2010."

Dow believes security measures at airports play a huge part in it.

The US Travel Association has made some recommendations, including a deduction in all US airport security checkpoint delays to 10 minutes or less; decreasing visa wait times to 10 days or less and cutting international arrival waiting times to no more than 20 minutes.

While there's a wait and see on those points, there are signs of a turnaround, albeit some very small ones.

Passenger volume at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) between January and June 2011 rose 5.4 per cent to nearly 30 million passengers from just more than 28 million during the same period the year prior. International passengers grew 4 per cent during the first six months of 2011 to just over 8 million from 7.77 million the year before.

Route watch

Virgin Atlantic is staking Edmund Hillary-style flags on New Zealand via an increase of its codeshare arrangements with the Kiwi national carrier.

The Richard Branson-founded airline has announced a codeshare with Air New Zealand, flying Auckland via Shanghai to London and return.

The move is an extension of a codeshare launched this year between the two airlines. The first was via Virgin Atlantic's traditional hub, Hong Kong.

The new codeshare allows New Zealand passengers to connect three times a week to London using Virgin Atlantic's flight code via Shanghai.

- Sun-Herald

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