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Singapore Airlines is to introduce a further five weekly flights to Australia from November 1. The services comprise three weekly flights to Sydney and two to Perth. To Singapore, all five are morning departures which arrive in Singapore in the early afternoon. (John Ruming)
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Ansett Float Not Far Away?
Ansett executive chairman Ken Cowley has said he would like to see the airline’s shares floated in “eighteen months to two years”. Speaking on the Business Sunday television programme, Mr Cowley said “we have still got a bit to do with our balance sheet and a bit to do with our debt, but that is an option I would encourage our shareholders [TNT and News Corp] to take”. TNT and News have considered selling part of their 50% shares at different times over the last few years in Ansett to gain capital for expansion, but there were no buyers. Ansett’s recent strong performance (including an operating profit of $129m in the last six months of 1993) will help attract buyers if it continues until the shares are floated. If the float goes ahead, News will most likely reduce its holding to about 25%, while TNT will probably keep its full stake for rather longer as Ansett’s profits are helping compensate for losses in other areas. TNT has also recently acquired Ansett Wridgeways and Ansett Freight Express from ATI.
Qf And Ba Link Onkangaroo Route:
British Airways and Qantas are to create a much greater level of cooperation on services between Europe and Singapore Airlines is to introduce a further five weekly flights to Australia from November 1. The services comprise three weekly flights to Sydney, and two to Perth. To Singapore all five are morning departures which arrive in Singapore in the early afternoon. (John Ruming) Australasia in a bid to offer customers more choice and seamless travel. The airlines are planning to coordinate scheduling, sales and marketing on their 35 weekly Boeing 747-400 Kangaroo route services and the Qantas network of Boeing 767 services between Australia, Singapore and Bangkok. These plans, due to come into effect in April 1995, at presstime were subject to Australian Government approval. Qantas dedicates about a quarter of its total international capacity to the Kangaroo route. Passenger benefits will include through check-in, a wider spread of departure and arrival times, greater choice of business and leisure stopover packages and fares. Qantas and BA are already working on proposals for new joint passenger lounges at Bangkok, Singapore and Los Angeles. The first joint passenger lounge was opened in Hong Kong in May. The strengthened alliance will also enhance the two airline cargo activities as customers benefit from integrated schedules, shared technology, quality initiatives and joint marketing programmes. Sir Colin Marshall, BA Chairman, said “This is the first really significant example of British Airways and Qantas working together so that we can improve the services we jointly offer to out customers”. In a joint statement Robert Ayling, Group Managing Director and Qantas Managing Director, James Strong, said “This development allows us to work together to unlock the revenue benefits from our relationship. Together we have a unique opportunity to offer customers the best route network between Europe and Australia. “By cooperating we will improve customer service, improve efficiency and increase our return on assets. This will make both airlines more competitive on the Kangaroo route, which is contested by no less than 32 airlines. In fact there is no other market in the world where quality airlines compete so aggressively on pricing and schedules,” he said. Combining complementary route and distribution networks will result in enhanced revenues from improved passenger and cargo feed. Further gains will come later next year from the Qantas decision to acquire British Airways’ BABS reservations system, providing reservations and sales compatibility. The airlines will operate a total of five daily flights linking Europe and Australia – two will be flown by British Airways and three by Qantas. British Airways will operate daily services linking London to Perth and London to Sydney, with the Sydney service extending to Brisbane three days a week and Melbourne on four days. Qantas will operate twice daily services that link London with both Sydney and Melbourne. From Europe Qantas will operate a five times a week service between Frankfurt and Sydney and twice a week between Rome and Sydney. All services will continue to operate through the Singapore or Bangkok hubs to provide links into the Qantas Asia-Pacific network. Whilst the plans result in an overall improvement in capacity and services there is some route rationalisation of additional sectors flown within Australia. British Airways aircraft will no longer fly into Adelaide, but connections will be maintained by Qantas. Frequency of Qantas’ service between Perth and Singapore will be reduced to daily. Qantas will also use a dedicated 737 British Airways connection to Manchester to replace its current Boeing 7 4 7 extension from London. British Airways also plans to operate a new one stop codeshare service from Auckland to London over Los Angeles. This will replace British Airways’ own direct two stop service over Australia, reducing the journey time by up to four hours. The plans involve passengers flying from Auckland to Los Angels on the three times a week Qantas service then connecting with British Airways flights from Los Angeles to London. The codeshare, which is subject to government approval is planned to start in April. Meanwhile, the two airlines have applied to Australia’s Trade Practices Commission (TPC) for authorisation to proceed with the cooperation plans. Cooperation on sales and marketing on the routes to Australia will begin as soon as approval from TPC is received with the new schedules to be introduced from next April. British Airways invested $A665 million to purchase 25% of Qantas in March 1993. Initial benefits from the THE NEXT ISSUE OF AUSTRALIAN AVIATION WILL BE ON SALE SEPTEMBER 29 – DON’T MISS IT! 16 Australian Aviation September 1994 alliance have come from reducing costs through joint purchasing of catering, fuel and shared airport and office facilities, and increased revenues from the round-the-world Global Explorer fare. British Airways is now providing handling for all Qantas services in the UK and Germany, and Qantas reciprocates in Australia. New joint office accommodation has been opened in Seoul and British Airways is sharing Qantas office facilities in Melbourne and Wellington. They are planning to share offices in other cities, including Tokyo and Christchurch.
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